Hang on a minute! You said you’d do that!
The Lost Art of Effective Minute-Taking
I’m a chair of Governors for a local school. We meet as a board a couple of times a term and minutes are taken by a local authority clerk.
When I first came on board, after years of work meetings where minute-taking duties are rotated around participants, the use of a dedicated, paid-for, minute clerk seemed an old-fashioned, ridiculous waste of scarce funds.
However, after some initial thwarted attempts by me to change things, I got used to it. Then I got to value it. Now I couldn’t live without it. It’s great being able to run and contribute to meeting knowing that a competent minute-taker is there, focused on doing that single task.
The disappearance of certain job roles over the years has caused more problems than it has solved. Effective minute-taking is one.
Everyone complains that time spent in meetings is ineffective. From time to time, though, meetings are essential. So why not make them more effective and let contributors contribute, whilst someone else handles the minutes?
I should add that, in corporate-world, the general standard of minute-taking is poor, even when someone has been brought in to do that task. It’s not given the status it deserves.
Accurate minutes with clearly articulated actions, responsibilities and timescales are one of the keys to any project’s success.
Photo credit: Geekcalendar
