What to know about taking board meeting minutes?

The meeting minutes are an account of the decisions and dialogue that occurred among a meeting’s attendees. Board meeting minutes serve an additional purpose beyond being a written record of the proceedings—it is an official and legal document. Minutes can help participants detail plans or serve as a reference for future decisions. Besides these, meeting minutes show motions, votes, and abstentions, as well as attendance. Read on for our complete guide on how to take board meeting minutes.

Who Takes Board Meeting Minutes?

• Typically, a secretary or assistant to a board member takes down the meeting minutes. Then, they will format it according to the company’s conventions and send the document to all attendees. At the next meeting, the attendees will review the minutes and either approve them or ask the minutes taker to correct them before the approval.
• Since recording minutes, sending these to participants, and noting corrections raised in the subsequent meeting are all time-consuming tasks, you can offload them to an executive assistant. An EA is experienced in supporting C-suite executives, so they should know how to record meeting minutes correctly.

Why Take Board Meeting Minutes?

• As mentioned above, board minutes account for what happens during a meeting. They are a valuable tool for understanding decisions the board reached. In today's fast-paced world, C-suite executives need to strike a balance between getting the context of a situation and responding best. Well-written meeting minutes prevent inefficiency and unproductivity since they lay out the problem correctly. It is crucial for many business leaders—as many as 65% of managers feel like meetings keep them from their core duties. With well-written meeting minutes, attendees would know their designated next steps and who is responsible for carrying these out.
• Another reason to take board meeting minutes is that it is a legal record. Board meeting minutes may be subpoenaed in case of a lawsuit, and what is written there will be taken as fact and incorporated into the matter. There may be legal consequences if votes are incorrectly recorded or crucial information is not in the minutes. Finally, minutes of board meetings are made available to sponsors, funders, and donors. External stakeholders may use meeting minutes to check how effectively the company’s board is steering the business to its goals.

How to Take Board Meeting Minutes: Skills Needed

People tasked to take minutes need to have several skills. A good note-taker should:

1. Have Great Listening Skills?– Taking effective minutes involves actively tuning into a conversation. A minute taker should know how to pick the most critical parts of what people are saying and distill them into a document that can be read in 5-10 minutes. Remember that the primary audience for board meeting minutes is C-suite executives, who don’t have all the time in the world.
2. Be Assertive?– At times, minute-takers need to speak up. When people exchange ideas, they might babble or gloss over a comment that needs to be fleshed out. Minute takers should be comfortable asking the attendees to repeat their statements or elaborate on them. So they can produce accurate notes.
3. Write Well?– Meeting minutes should be readable to someone who did not attend the meeting. So, a minute taker must be good at written communication. They need to know how to make their statements clear yet concise and use simple language.
4. Have Technical Knowledge?– Finally, having an excellent working knowledge of the company’s ins and outs is a must. Otherwise, the minute taker might struggle to keep up with discussions or fail to record important points raised.

What to Include in Meeting Minutes:

• Date and time the meeting was called to order
• Names of participants and absentees
• If a quorum was present
• Amendments to previous meeting minutes
• Motions passed or rejected
• Votes and their outcomes
• Actions arising from the last meetings
• Items to be held over until the next meeting
• The date and time of the next meeting
• The time the appointment was adjourned

What Not to Include in Meeting Minutes:

• Details on Individuals’ Votes
• Opinionated Notations
• Document Summaries
• Off-Topic Conversation

Taking board meeting minutes can be a tedious task for busy executives, but the good news is that Get Desky can make it easier.

Get Desky assistants trained to take board meeting minutes, freeing up time and energy for you to focus on proceeding with sound business decisions. Taking care of one less thing on your plate, Get Desky allows you to sit in on meetings without worrying about continually taking notes, so your attention won’t waver - leaving anything out! Moreover, the detailed minutes taken by your assistant mean all relevant events are documented and ready for quick reference later.

Utilize this helpful service from us and keep your business administration flowing as smoothly as possible.

Leave the Tedious Admin Tasks to Your Get Desky Assistant!