50+ SAMPLE Group Meeting Minutes

What are group meeting minutes?

Group meeting minutes are an official record of board meetings, or annual meetings in general, or any kind of meeting at all. The term pertains to the general being of meeting records and may range to a really long list of types of meetings. ‘Minutes’ was a word coined in the 18th century, which in Latin, can be translated to “minuta scriptura” which directly means “small notes”. These are very important records, and you can further see that with a lot of companies requiring a book filled with different meeting minutes. This document, however, does not only concentrate itself to business, as there are also different kinds of groups that require it, such as activist groups planning their projects, or non-government organizations trying to formulate an action plan. These are things that require decisions and discussions to be jotted down for future use, as well as the time taken by the whole meeting. As mentioned, group meeting minutes can cover a lot of different kinds of purposes.

Key Elements of Group Meeting Minutes

In getting to learn about group meeting minutes, it is very essential for you to know the key elements as well, which are the general make-up of the record in and of itself. Knowing them enables you to get familiarized with its structure, and the important things for you to include, especially if you are one who has been tasked to write the meeting minutes. For meeting minutes to serve their purpose and uphold their legitimacy, they are to contain specific parts that depict the different categories of actions that have happened in the meeting. Some of these are the agenda to be elaborated, the record of attendance, and a lot more. It is significant for us to be able to distinguish these different elements in order to make a holistic record, and fulfill the general goal of the minutes of the meeting. These are the key elements of the group minutes of the meeting.

Date and Location : The date and location where the meeting took place are essential details in the minutes of the meeting. This information identifies the time and day wherein the group has discussed the agenda and passed on actions. Having these details readily visible in the record makes it easier to trace these actions and link them to specific people, for instance, and this is something that the company, or the group in general, might need to do in the future. It is also protocol for a lot of companies to have these information in the document, because supervisors, or department heads may need to know about the different things that were touched upon during the meeting, as well as the date and location where it happened.Title : Of course, one of the most important elements of the minutes of the meeting is the title. This makes the agenda and the file itself very distinctive from the others, since the label puts out the main purpose of the gathering. The title also gives a general overview of what the general discussion has been about, and is essential by virtue of easy traceability, and basically just for people to be able to quickly know what the document embodies as opposed to having to necessarily go over the whole file to know.Attendance Record : As the secretary of the group, you need to take note of the people who showed up for the meeting. That is to say that you may have a section of the meeting wherein you say the names of people who have to be there out loud, and if they do not respond, you are to record them as absent, in a similar way that you record those who have responded as present. Attendance records are important because supervisors are going to need that detail in the future in order to track the whereabouts of certain members of the board, since their say may really be important to uphold the agenda at hand. Nonetheless, attendance is really important since the number of people around also determines the trajectory of the likelihood to arrive at a consensus, for instance, and for a lot of other reasons as well. Items Listed for Discussion : As the secretary, you may have prior knowledge regarding the agenda, which is why it is likely for you to write a list of items for discussion. You may do so in your record, however, it is also very important for you to keep an open list since it is very possible for a certain addendum to be brought up in the middle of the meeting. The items listed for discussion are those that need to be tackled by the board, and this is an important piece of information to include in the meeting minutes since this is technically the reason why the meeting has been set in the first place.Deadlines and Tasks : Deadlines and tasks are very essential, and they serve as the heel of the items listed for discussion. For the tasks, you are to elaborate what has been discussed in the meeting to be the designated action intended for the item that has been listed. These may be solutions, or general procedures to be made to achieve a certain goal. Moreover, there may also be a responsible person for that certain task, like an individual, or a group of people to be the doer of the action itself. This is a detail that you have to include in the table of deadlines and tasks, which are usually columns next to each other after the items listed for discussion. Lastly, the deadline is an important thing to note as well since you or the supervisor may have to do some follow-ups to the members in order to remind them of when the task has to be accomplished.Duration of the Meeting : The duration of the meeting is a detail that will be looked for, since supervisors may check if the group followed the intended time of meeting, since meeting rooms may be used for other purposes. Rooms are booked for different reasons, and they have to be booked prior to using them. But generally, it is essential for members to observe punctuality, and adherence to the schedule. The secretary is to take down notes of the exact time when the meeting has started, and the exact time where it has officially ended as well.Date for the Next Meeting : Albeit not included in all meeting minutes, some groups may discuss the next date for the following meeting, perhaps to ask for updates, for instance. The date for the next meeting is then to be taken down notes of by the secretary in order to be able to remind the people of the upcoming meeting, as well as for record’s sake.Signatory : In order to seal the document, it has to be signed by the secretary, and sometimes, the chairperson as well, if required. This is to confirm that all the content in the document has been reviewed by the secretary, and is confirmed to be uniformly true. This is also done to see if the intended secretary is the one taking notes of the meeting, for instance, in order to also serve as proof that they were there. Generally, signatories are important for formality, and for traceability as well.

How to Write Group Meeting Minutes

Now that the key elements of the group meeting minutes have been elaborated, it is high time for you to have the step-by-step process of how to write a document with its concern. Group meeting minutes are essential for a lot of reasons, which is why the undertaking is to be done meticulously. These notes can be used as something to look back to when constituents have further questions, for instance, and can even be used as precedence for future actions to be made by members of the board. It is important for the minutes to have holistic details that are going to be sought after in the long run, or perhaps simply in the aftermath of the verbal transaction between all of the people within the setting. This is how you can write group meeting minutes.

Step 1: Creation of the Outline

When you are someone who has been tasked to take the minutes of the meeting, you are expected to work fast and be a very attentive listener in order for the important pieces of information to be secured in writing. For you to do this, you have to know which details are important to jot down as well, otherwise, you will try to write everything in verbatim which will take a lot of time and will hassle you in the long run, or perhaps jot down things and miss a few important ones. This is why the creation of the outline is important, because it allows you to know which concepts are to be written down, and it makes the task a lot easier in general.

Step 2: Attendance Checking

One of the most important parts of the group meeting minutes is the attendance, or the list of people who are present in the meeting. After creating your outline prior to the meeting proper, it is possible that the secretary is the one who is tasked to check the attendance and facilitate the attendance checking process. You may do this through writing down the names of the people required to attend, and then putting a check mark beside their name. This way, it is easier for you to identify who is absent.

Step 3: Action Items

Action items are those that are being decided on by group, more often through voting. These may also be things that are to be done in certain deadlines, i.e. tasks or projects decided on by the group for the community. This detail is very important to note, because some of these are not planned ahead, and are just spontaneously suggested by members.

Step 4: Reviewing

Before officially signing and passing the group meeting minutes, it is also important for you to make sure that everything written is correct, and that you did not miss anything in the official file. It is very important for the minutes to be accurate and precise, so if there are any parts that seem necessary, you may omit those and retain the ones that are very essential, and those that are in line with the spirit of the meeting in and of itself. Reviewing also gives you the avenue to check for typos and errors which are to be avoided in formal documents.

Step 5: Signing the Document

As the secretary, your signature is very important by virtue of it being the verification of the legitimacy of the minutes. After reviewing and witnessing that everything is intact, in place, and correct, you may affix your signature to confirm everything.

In what tense should I write my meeting minutes in?

The group meeting minutes should always be written in past tense. The minutes serve as a recollection of what has presided in the meeting, which is why it should be retrospective, as opposed to some sort of live commentary.

Is the secretary’s signature mandatory for the group meeting minutes?

The necessity of a secretary’s signature lies on the nature of the meeting itself. If the meeting is formal, more so in a business setting or a corporate one, then it is very important for the signature to be present to verify the legitimacy of the document.

What are a few tips to write faster?

A few tips to write faster is to write notes (your draft) in phrases instead of full sentences. This allows the meaning and flesh of the thought to remain, without the hassle of having to write in perfect grammar and proper use of words. You may revise this in your actual document which is going to be made afterwards. You may also use abbreviations or initials when writing names of members.

The group meeting minutes is very important because of its different purposes. With that being said, it is a must to have the group secretary to take the job seriously and make sure that he or she has written down the important things which are going to be recalled later on in order to accomplish the tasks being discussed, or simply for questions by members in the long run. Conclusively, it is generally important to know the different elements of a group meeting minutes, as well as the process of how to create one since they allow you to become a more skilled listener and record-taker.