Man asked to take minutes in a meeting. I don't know whether to be impressed or irritated

[StealthPolarBear]

I was in a meeting yesterday. At the last minute a man was asked to take minutes. After the meeting he emailed out to (presumably) everyone who had provided an update on the meeting asking for a summary of what they'd said.
Is this genius, lazy, both, or just not doing his job. I do mention it was a man as women are often asked to minute and I suspect would be less likely to do this, could be wrong.

He's a lazy genius

Laziness!!!! Surely the whole point is it allows everyone else to focus on the conversation knowing they’ll get the summary afterwards?

I’ve seen men and women taken minutes but in my experience it’s often a PA / administrator and they are overwhelmingly female. But I’ve never seen anyone do this before!

If I'd been asked to do them and either not, or thought I'd done a bad job, I'd be beating myself up, trying to fill in the gaps from memory.
I do wonder if he recorded discussion and actions though - otherwise it's a bit pointless.

I'm wondering if this was PA.. he resented being asked so he hasn't actually taken any minutes at all and is now relying on everyone else to provide the info to everyone....

I think I'd be pissed off if I had been the chair and/or attendee because surely the whole point of having minutes is to summarise and prevent so much email churn?

Asking everyone to email an update isn't minuting a meeting. However, if he was only asked to do this at the last moment, the fault lies with the organiser of the meeting - it should have been arranged beforehand.

I think this is fairly normal? Either hand the notes over on a piece of paper, email them in advance or send them in afterwards. Makes the minutes much more likely to be accurate.

Well it certainly does in my case, I really struggle with minute taking.

Hardly counts as genius. If I'd asked him to do this and he pulled this stunt, I'd have words with him. Why should everyone else be inconvenienced simply because he couldn't be arsed to do his job.

Exactly valenta. The important stuff will be missing, unless he was recording that. I will report back when they're circulated.
It was a fairly informal meeting. I'd not be bothered about being asked to minute this sort of meeting as it gets going. Obviously if it was a formal meeting I'd want more notice and actually for someone who knows how to do it properly to do it.

I've never been in a meeting where there has PA or administrator to take the minutes though, it always seems to be one of the participants doing it.

This is clearly a way of ensuring he is not asked to take minutes again. He needs to be told that it is important that every member can take minutes if needed and he clearly needs more practice, so you have generously decided to allow him to take minutes for the rest of the year to allow him to 'upskill' himself !

Yes we're the same. Pa's only minute if it's a board usually. Anything lower then its just usually th e person in the meeting who needs to participe least.

I'm a bit confused as to why the issue with it being a man?

Women ask for info to help complete minutes after meetings too.

asking for a summary of what they'd said.

"I suggest that you ask the Chair first. As I recall, they said you were the minute-taker so it all flows from there. HTH."

He's lazy and not ashamed of it. Dies he have form for being a little bit shit?

PAs
Stupid phone

I think being asked to minute a meeting when you haven’t had fair warning and time to check on acronyms etc and/or if you also need to contribute to the discussion is a nightmare. More so in my profession as meetings are usually by telephone so you have to decipher whose voice is whose through the crackles.

However, that’s never stopped me doing my absolute damned best. I might email specific people if I felt I had missed something important or to check on the acronyms etc. I wouldn’t ever generically e-mail everyone.

Hobbles but they've usually tried first. As I said if I'd done a bad job of taking minutes I'd be doing everything I could to sort it out..

Exactly!! I've had emails before from people to chevk their understanding of what I said but that's different

You see i would assume that he has the minutes. But wants everyone notes in case he missed something.

I don't see the issue.

Maybe he’s never done this before! I’ve never taken the minutes of a meeting ever. I’d probably make a hash of it my first time out.

Gender has nowt to do with it.... unless you want it to be the issue. How sad really. Why don’t you guide him, help him out, Stealth? Or is it just easier to moan about him on MN?

Hobbles but they've usually tried first. As I said if I'd done a bad job of taking minutes I'd be doing everything I could to sort it out..

Ok. So you V's this man - you would have done a better job.

All men v's All women? Not the same.

I still don't see the relevance of it being a man. All you have said is you will do a better job next time

Next time? Haha sorry I mean you would do a better job. Full stop.

Was talking to DH about next time we go for dinner

He's nothing to do with me really, in a completely different team in another part of the organisation. I was just amused and a little impressed.
I really feel if he'd never done this before he'd have been more likely to record everything word for word.

If I received an email from the minute taker asking what I'd said I would be annoyed. The whole point of minutes is to note discussions and agreements for the record so details need to be taken down at the time. It doesn't matter if it was a last minute request. It's not a hard job to take notes.