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61 - Meetings – note taking

from Section 3 - Activities and tools

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 June 2018

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Summary

Meetings – note taking

MOST OF US have been in a meeting where the first question the Chair asks is, ‘Will someone volunteer to take the minutes?’ At this point everyone looks down at the table until someone gives in and volunteers. Whilst this is a better situation than the one in which someone asks, either halfway through the meeting or at the end, ‘Who is taking the minutes?’ and it turns out no one is, it is not ideal. Taking the notes at a meeting can be a valuable development activity but it requires some thought and preparation in advance if the note taker is to get the most out of the experience and if the notes are to provide a useful record of the meeting.

Note taking develops a number of skills including time management, written communication and active listening. Note taking can be a particularly good development activity for junior staff as a means of enabling them to understand how meetings work and how things get done within their organization.

Good practice

It is good practice to agree a note taker in advance of the meeting. The Chair and the note taker should then get together, either face-to-face or virtually, to agree the agenda and the type of notes required. The agenda needs to be clearly laid out and it is a good idea to include timings and who is leading on each item. The most important items should appear first on the agenda. The agenda, along with any other papers and the notes from any previous meeting, should be circulated well in advance of the meeting. The note taker should bring along spare copies of all papers to the meeting.

The note taker needs to be clear about how much detail is needed and how the notes are to be used by both group members and other stakeholders. Do they need to be a verbatim account of what is said or just a summary? Can only decisions and actions be recorded? Would a separate action plan be a useful document? The more detailed the minutes, the harder it is for the note taker to contribute anything else to the meeting. This is one of the reasons for deciding in advance of the meeting who the note taker will be and the format the notes will take.

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Publisher: Facet
Print publication year: 2016

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