10 Tips for Successful Meeting Minutes

Meeting Minutes: Why Are They Important?

Minutes are an essential document that is produced after each meeting. It provides a summary of the nature of the exchanges, the various suggestions from the speakers, and the decisions that were made. In this, it has the advantage of framing discussions in order to produce effective, object-centered meetings. However, the report is often referred to draft status and thus loses its interest in synthesis and clarity.

Fortunately, many tools now allow you to save significant time producing reports and produce comprehensive and prioritized reports. These tools can integrate automatic note-taking, task follow-up, step description, and so on.

10 key points for a successful report

1. Use the right tools : Depending on your needs, different tools can make it easier for you to write reports. If you are conducting an online meeting, communication platforms Video conference It can offer you built-in features for taking notes or creating summary. You can also choose Copy softwarewhich will save you writing time.
2. Appointment of a course: Before the meeting, it is necessary to select a rapporteur who will be responsible for taking notes and preparing the report. This will save you from having to deal with scattered, often incomplete, notes taken by different interlocutors. If you use a transcription tool, the reporter will be responsible for checking the content and improving the organization of the information.
3. Write the minutes immediately after the meeting: After the meeting is undoubtedly the best time to write meeting minutes. In fact, important information is still fresh in your mind and in the mind of your participants, who you can ask when in doubt. This will also allow you to quickly distribute the summary.
4. Meeting log: During meetings, taking notes can sometimes be complicated, especially if ideas and inconsistencies run rampant. Thus, it is important to record the meeting to ensure that you follow up. Registration may also allow you to use the automatic transcription software after the meeting. However, make sure all participants agree to this recording.
5. State the context of the meeting: The first information that should be indicated in the report is the date, participants and topic of the meeting. These elements frame the context and provide a clear basis for understanding how the discussions will develop. Then, you will be able to classify reports of the same project efficiently.
6. Highlighting the decisions made: A constructive meeting should lead to a decision. The purpose of the report is therefore to provide evidence of the choices that were made. If specified, you can also integrate a calendar of steps to the next meeting, in order to provide a clear view of the participants.
7. Note points of agreement and disagreement: The meeting report reflects the status of project progress at a given point in time, so it is important to emphasize points that are disparate and those on which there is consensus within the teams. This will allow you to identify items that require additional analysis or an outside viewpoint.
8. Suggest a clear and elegant layout: The document should be easy to read, and it should allow the employee who is absent from the meeting to understand at a glance the key issues and items discussed. So be sure to make a synopsis, well-ventilated, and take care to organize the information. It is especially possible to choose a template that will help you interest your presentation and unify your different reports.
9. Validate the report: Not all participants necessarily have a similar experience in the same meeting. Thus, once you have written your report, it is important to ensure that all interlocutors agree with your document. This step is particularly important insofar as the report serves as evidence of everyone’s positions and decisions made.
10. Organize the minutes in an easy-to-reach place: Once your abstract has been produced, it is recommended that you make it available to multiple collaborators in a shared space that lists all meeting minutes for the same project. Thus, it will allow the employees to find a certificate for the different stages of work. Reports can be accessed via an on-premises server, in the cloud, or on a collaborative work platform.