MINUTES book

[Lisa Hocking]

We have maintained an actual Minutes book as well as digitising the minutes & printing off as required on a computer held by the clerk … is it normal practice now to do away with the hand written minutes in a Minutes book? Wondering if we need to continue or if we can archive the old book? New clerk taking over so thought would be a good opportunity to update our practice??

[info@maryparminter.org.uk]

I am the clerk and I use an enotebook. I hand write, convert to text and then edit. I print off a hard copy which I keep in a ring binder as well as in a computer folder. Some of our handwritten minute books were stolen and found in a puddle beyond restoration. I can’t think of any real advantage of keeping handwritten minutes especially with handwriting like mine! The content is more important than the format in my opinion.

[lana_sh]

Hello,

I am the clerk for my organisation – CIO. We do not have a minutes book as such, as it is not required.
I found it time saving to pre-type minutes for the meeting, correct them during the meeting, and review them afterwards. The approved minutes are signed by the Chair and kept as both printed and digital copies. This is a precaution in case of a loss of our digital data. 

I hope this helps.
Lana

[clerk.stjohnswilton]

Lana

You have a very good system there.

We have something very similar, which we think goes one better. I write a Clerk’s Report to the trustees before each meeting (with guidance from the Chairman if necessary). It has a short paragraph (or two) on each agenda item. Where decisions are required, these are explicitly highlighted and options and recommendations for action are made where I think it would help.

This goes out the week before the meeting, together with an agenda and a reminder of the time, place and date of the meeting, and the names of notified absentees.

The Chairman, trustees and I follow the ‘script’ in the Clerk’s Report but they can (and often enough do) go ‘off piste’ if they think there is a dissenting opinion to be aired or a ‘wrinkle’ I hadn’t thought of.. I annotate my copy of the Report accordingly with notes and decisions etc. A record is thus taken at the meeting, but all the hard work of minutes writing (like you do it) has been done well in advance.

And the meetings can be refreshingly focused and productive.

I usually feel by the end of each meeting that all the necessary decisions (appropriately thought-through) have been taken by a properly briefed Board. Even if it is me that has to do the hard work of thinking through the implications around each Agenda Item in advance! But, in truth, we are (or should be) the persons most up to speed on what’s going on in the Charity and what needs to be done.

Then, similar to your system, minutes writing for me is largely a case of changing the tense of all the verbs in the slightly modified Clerk’s Report, so it becomes ‘reported speech’.

Finally I have to admit that I didn’t invent this system – it’s one of the means of recording meetings that is taught at the Defence Staff College. … .
Nick Stiven
clerk@stjohnswilton.org.uk

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