If the Chair and the Secretary or minutes-taker work together to ensure the agenda and meeting are well thought out, it makes minute taking much easier. For example, depending on the meeting structure and the tools you use, the minutes-taker could work with the Chair to create a document format that works as an agenda and minutes outline as well.
You can find more templates and details on formatting meeting minutes here. Download our Meeting Minute Checklist for Associations and Nonprofits with sample minutes taken at a meeting and learn how to take better minutes. You can also find more meeting minutes templates made for Microsoft Word here. Still wondering if you're taking notes correctly?
Here's a sample of what meeting minutes at a board meeting might look like. Here are some tips that might help:. They are not an official record of a meeting unless this has taken place. Depending on your Board, minutes may also be formally approved at the beginning of the next meeting. The method of sharing or distribution will depend on the tools that you and your organization use. For example, if you are using a word processing tool e.
Committee or Board members can simply read the documents online and save a few trees! Through members-only webpages, you can create a secure online Intranet for your Board and committees. If you are wondering about the types of tools you might use specifically for meeting minutes, here are some tools that organizations we've worked with have found helpful:.
Most committees and Boards review and either approve or amend the minutes at the beginning of the subsequent meeting. Some organizations may store these online e. You may also need to print and store hard copies as well or provide these to a staff member or Chair for filing. If you're a nonprofit with regular board and member meetings and you want to save time and money managing your organization, get a free trial of WildApricot , an all-in-one membership management software which allows you to:.
Find out all the features of WildApricot's free membership management software here. WildApricot is also the the 1 rated membership management software used by over 20, organizations every day. Get your free trial now. Meeting minutes are important — after all, they capture the essential information of a meeting.
We hope this article helps meeting minutes newbies in getting started in creating effective meeting minutes for your organization. Thank you for reading our guide on how to write meeting minutes! Get the report now! This website uses cookies to ensure you get the best experience on our website. However, they're also infamous for their inefficiency.
Meeting minutes are an official record of a meeting for its participants. They're also sources of information for teammates who were unable to attend.
Despite their name, meeting minutes don't have to be a record of every single minute, it's a tool to only include the most relevant information in your document. Meeting minutes are incredibly handy tools that can offer your team an array of advantages. Meeting minutes can help avoid endless discussion and back-and-forths because they make things more efficient.
The structure of meeting minutes also helps with this, as agenda items are often placed in tables that assign contact people, plans of actions, and the like.
As a general rule, a meeting leader should never go into a meeting without a precise plan outlining what needs to be discussed. This will add structure to your meetings and make sure everything gets discussed thoroughly but efficiently. You can simply send meeting attendees a copy of the relevant meeting minutes and they can bring themselves up to speed right away.
This benefit is especially convenient if you use a software like Slite where everything is saved and easily shareable from one central workspace. Meeting minutes are also handy documents that can be glanced at before a meeting ends, just to make sure everything has been covered.
Meeting minutes can be great accountability tools for clients. However, the following elements are usually included in most meeting minute documents:. This ensures that everything is organized and that your meeting can be identified at a glance. Every meeting should have one central goal. You might discuss a variety of topics, but there should be one main objective on the agenda.
As previously mentioned, your board meeting minutes should be unbiased. Because of this, board minutes should focus on decisions, not discussion.
On occasion, disagreeing members may state flat-out that they want their disagreement recorded. Avoid this, and instead, simply note that it occurred — no further explanation necessary. After all, board meeting minutes are discoverable papers that can be used in any potential legal situation.
You should mention presented materials in your board minutes. With comprehensive tools , presentations are easy to locate at any point. Plus, Boardable is compatible with Dropbox and other widely-used cloud-based storage systems, making it easily accessible to all board members. While there are common distractions in every board meeting, recording them can be problematic in a legal investigation.
For example, leave out:. When in doubt, simply leave it out. That goes for anything that could present complications if reviewed later by others. These off-the-record comments and discussions are certainly allowed to take place, but they must be clearly designated as off-the-record. Nothing else should be recorded about any tangents. To avoid these complications, create an Agenda Requests folder in your Document Center.
This way, future discussion topics are correctly scheduled into future meetings. While the content of your nonprofit board minutes will change from one meeting to the next, following a standard outline will help in the minute-taking process to ensure consistency and accuracy.
However, there are several details every nonprofit board needs to record during meetings. Reports from officers, standing committees, and any special committees. Old business, where you discuss unresolved issues from previous meetings. New business, where you discuss any other agenda items that come up.
Closing the meeting, where you include the date and time of adjournment. Luckily, current technology offers several options when it comes to accurately recording a meeting with board meeting minutes templates. Only that a motion passed or failed is needed.
However, meeting participants may request that their negative votes be recorded in the minutes. Because debates infrequently reflect a balanced view or consensus of the members—either the minority or majority view is argued more strongly—including debates in the minutes might create a skewed historical record.
In addition, including debate detail could create a public appearance of divisiveness when a united public front is more desirable.
Say, for instance, your group decides to sponsor a fall carnival. You debate in detail the activities to be included at the carnival and their safety. Unfortunately, a child is hurt on the moon bounce.
The parents sue the PTO, saying the organization knew or should have known the dangers. If your meeting minutes catalog the safety debate, that could work against you.
For each item on the agenda, there should be a corresponding item in the minutes. In this way, the supporting reports and documents may be attached to and kept as part of the agenda. Someone reviewing the minutes later can then easily reference the agenda and attachments. Originally posted in and updated regularly. Sandra Pfau Englund is an attorney specializing in legal issues for nonprofit organizations. The best PTO advice, ideas, and inspiration delivered weekly.
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