[MUSIC] Minutes are the written record

of what happened in a meeting. During the meeting,

someone takes notes, and after the meeting, that person
writes a report about what happened. I believe that minutes here
doesn't refer to time. Its original meaning was small notes or
small writing. And that fits in with our
first learning objective for this lesson, to write concise or
brief minutes of meetings. We'll also look at vocabulary
related writing minutes. And finally,
we'll identify best practices. First, read these different options for
minutes. Which do you think are the most
common types of minutes? The first one is not common at all. It would take too long
to
read all this detail, and if you need that exact record
of a meeting, just make a video. Even then, no one would
want to watch the whole thing. The last ones might be sent out sometimes
as messages to announce a decision or to remind people of
something they need to do. But meeting minutes
are not an announcement. Written minutes are a short report. So here are the most
common
ways to write minutes. The difference in these two is just
how much information to add about a discussion, and
we'll discuss that in a minute. If you know ahead of time,
before the meeting, that you're the one responsible for
taking the minutes, here are some ideas. First, look at minutes
of previous meetings. See what they included. This will tell you what people in
your organization expect to see. Your job will be a lot easier
if there's a meeting agenda. The agenda will have the list of
attendees and an outline of the meeting. When you know the topics,
you can look up key words or information related to those topics. This will help
you understand
things during the meeting and also help you as you write. If possible, get to the
meeting early. As people arrive,
check their names on the agenda. And if you get there early, you can sit in
a place where you can see who's talking, and also any visuals like slides or
flip charts. If you don't know everyone who's at
the meeting, print out some name cards for people to put on the table
in front of them. Okay, so the meeting begins, and now you have to figure out how
to take minutes
while you participate in the discussion. This is always hard. There are a lot of
different
ways to take minutes. Some people try to write everything
that people say, other people just right a few notes on the agenda, and some
people use a template or a kind of chart. Here's an example of a chart from the
meeting you saw in lesson one last week. This was a brain storming meeting,
so there weren't notes for any follow up action. Basically, just use whatever note
taking system works best for you. One other note about taking
minutes during the meeting. If you don't understand what someone said,
consider asking for clarification right then. The chances are, other people are
also
confused or didn't hear clearly. Here are some examples of things
you might say to clarify. >> I'm sorry to interrupt, but
I didn't catch what you said, Tina. I'm not clear on that last point, Erik. Karin,
I think you said
the deadline is in two weeks. Is that correct? I apologize if I'm the only one who
doesn't know this, but what is MRQ? >> The last question do you want
any of this in the minutes? Is one you might ask if the discussion
seems private, controversial, or even off topic. Try to write the minutes within 24
hours. You'll remember details better, and
the minutes will be more useful. As you're writing,
you may need to check with the chair or other people who were at the meeting
to clarify what they said. And if you wait too long,
they may not remember. Some people even send
a draft of the minutes around to everyone before sending the minutes
out to people who weren't there. Okay, so we've talked about some ideas for
what to do before a meeting and when you're taking minutes. Now you're ready to
write the minutes,
and here is some guidelines. As with everything you write,
think about the person or people who will read your minutes. Why are they reading
them? Many times, people read minutes because
they weren't able to attend the meeting. Absent team members want to
know what they missed. For people who were at the meeting, the minutes help remind
them of
what action they need to take. And sometimes, the minutes of a meeting
are sent to a top administrator to keep that person, that administrator,
informed of a team's progress. Or last, maybe an organization wants
to keep a record of decisions and reasons for those decisions for
future reference. All of these are factors that
are important when you're thinking about what to put in the minutes. Knowing who's
going to read
the minutes and why they want them will help you make decisions
about how much and what to write. The key questions are usually, what were
the topics of discussion, what decisions were made, what action is required next,
and when is the next meeting? The level of formality in the minutes
depends on who's reading them. Is it a small,
friendly group of coworkers? Informal meetings are fine. Is it a top manager, and
are the readers strangers to you? A formal tone will make your minutes and
your meeting sound more professional. This is why it's good to
look at previous minutes. They'll give you an idea of the level
of formality you need to use. We'll look at some of the language
choices that create a formal or informal tone in a few minutes, but
here are two examples of an informal and formal way of writing minutes. >> Tina
showed us the results of
the consumer survey (attached), and we agreed that the Market has
the most potential for sales. Following an examination of
the attached consumer survey data, the marketing team decided
on Pike Place Market. >> Your job will be easier if the meeting
has a clear agenda to start, and if the team leader keeps
everything on track. Then you can just
the agenda as your outline, with the same headings and format. If you don't have a
good agenda to follow,
just decide on your own format. Here's some examples of important
information to include before and after the body of the minutes. Do you remember
the guidelines for
headings from course one? The headings and
minutes follow the same ones. Use short noun phrases,
not complete sentences. The ways you organize the body of
the minutes really depends on the meeting itself, what kind of meeting it was,
and what happened in the meeting. Here's some examples of minutes
from different types of meetings. As you read these, think about why the writer
organized
the information in this way. Now look at pros and cons. Pros and cons are short
ways to
say things that are positive, a pro, or negative, a con. Sort of similar to for and
against. People in business are busy, so
it's very important to be concise. So what does concise mean? It means that you
give all the necessary
information clearly, but in a few words. Write only what happened in the meeting,
general information about discussions and decisions. But do not write what each
person said. No, he said, and then she said,
and then he asked. That level of detail is not necessary. And do not add
information
that isn't important. Remember to ask yourself questions like,
what do the readers need to know? And, will this information be helpful
when someone looks at it in two years? Many times,
meetings deal with very routine matters. But occasionally, you have
disagreements and some strong emotions. As a note-taker, try to be neutral,
that is, try to write what people said without giving your opinion or
making any judgement. And then, when you write the minutes,
don't take sides or present your own opinion. One way to do that is not to add
a lot of adjectives or adverbs. Don't say, for example,
that discussion was long, or that people discussed something angrily. Leave words
like that out of the minutes. [MUSIC]