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.

That doesn't count as minuting. Minutes taken during the meeting are important because they act as a neutral (in theory) account of what was said.

Simply compiling statements sent afterwards from the attendees can result in points being raised in those notes that were not raised in the meeting and were therefore never challenged or discussed., but the sender wants to pretend he or she DID raise them. E.g. trying to bury bad news.

This minutes need reminding why minutes are more than just a record of what everyone thinks but are also a record of what everyone heard.

He deffo needs more practice.

Aren't you even a little bit tempted to refer him to the minutes?

Is it part of his role?
It’s ineffective and therefore not impressive to email afterwards
Sounds haphazard

Laziness is often seen as a bad thing, however it often makes people incredibly efficient. I think it's genius.

NutellaFitzgerald is absolutely right.

If I minute a meeting, I ask that participants email me with any corrections or omissions, and I then re-circulate so we have a document agreed by everyone.

Meeting minutes are supposed to be an independent and contemporaneous record of what was said.

Constructing a record based on everyone's self-submitted summaries of what they believe they said, does not qualify as minutes.

Lazy or not, it's incorrect and if it's a meeting which needed to be minuted then he should have been taking them down 'live'.

He's taking the piss.

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

This.

I'd email him back saying, 'I'll look at your first draft when you send it and let you know if there's anything I'd like added or amended.'

What Darling said. And if I was his manager he’d be spoken to about it too.

The that would happen at my old work - minute taking is a skill on its own. Every meeting had a pm doing them. Every international meeting the minutes would be emailed, checked and changed if not correct.

I’m glad it wasn’t me doing it, I had to do the talking instead, and you rely on that person taking them.

And if you’re not expecting to take notes because someone is then well it’s questionable whether the meeting was recorded correctly or even met it’s purpose at all

Be a big issue if everyone flies in for something for eg

I'm in loads of meetings (technical) - whoever is responsible for the meeting generally circulates an agenda (and asks for feedback). During the meeting they take notes (sometimes on a shared screen)

After the meeting they mail out, including any decisions made, and who was tasked with performing certain actions.

And yes, the first time you do it, you probably screw up (although you'd have received so many of them yourself that you know what's expected) - but you get better. And mine are all over the phone, so if I hadn't spent enough time with people to recognise their voices, it would be almost impossible - but that's why you don't have newbies do it.

And you might ping individuals for clarifications if you read back your notes and don't understand something, but the whole idea is that you're responsible for this meeting actually producing something, for chasing up on things being done, for knowing what decisions have been made, and who made them. If you don't have notes, then stuff will be forgotten, and then your meeting was pointless.

I like the suggestion of asking him for the first draft to which you will reply with any errors or ommisions or you could go for the ignoring option and hope everyone else does the same.

I very surprised that someone thinks this is normal, I have been to way too many meetings in both work situations and my voluntary positions and I have never come across it. Is it a thing?

I very surprised that someone thinks this is normal, I have been to way too many meetings in both work situations and my voluntary positions and I have never come across it. Is it a thing?

I have never encountered this. Ever.

I am responsible for reporting on financial matters at our meetings and I always send the minute taker my notes to help them out and keep it accurate. They do take minutes on everything else though.

I used to take minutes lots, the only thing I used to ask for was if people had brought any figures to the meeting if I could have a copy to make sure I reported it correctly. It sounds as though he didn't bother taking any minutes at all.

Perfect example of "strategic incompetence" in action! He's hoping he won't be asked again. If I was his line manager, I'd give him a dressing down, tell him how to write minutes properly, and make sure he took the minutes for every sodding meeting for the next year.

I wonder if he's the type of guy who ruins dinner or puts dark washing with whites so his girlfriend / wife doesn't ask him to do it again.

If a meeting is mainly people giving reports it is sensible for the minute taker to ask people for a summary of what they said. That way what appears in the minutes is more likely to be accurate than something generated from notes taken in the meeting, especially if the minute taker is trying to participate in the meeting. It sounds like that is what happened here since the OP refers to him emailing people who had provided updates. During the meeting the minute taker needs to record actions and decisions. If he was asking people what they said during discussions I would agree that was wrong. But asking people to summarise their reports for the minutes is reasonable in my view.

If I was his line manager, I'd give him a dressing down, tell him how to write minutes properly, and make sure he took the minutes for every sodding meeting for the next year.

Absolutely!

That's not taking minutes, it's preparing a summary retrospectively. Our minutes carry legal weight so they have to be contemporaneous.

No one would reply to him and a manager would tell him it was his responsibility and he mustn't let it happen again due to the legal status of the minutes.

I can't believe the cheeky bugger got away with that.

Are the reports to supplement the minutes? That's what happens for the meetings I attend.

I'm crap at taking minutes. The (male) PMs I work with are really good at it. However, we did have one who was dyslexic. If he attended meetings where he was required to minute, he usually took a junior with him or if that wasn't possible he recorded the meeting. He needed to be prepared. If someone dropped a "you minute this" on him at a meeting, he wouldn't have been able to do it. And depending on the attendees or client was, he wouldn't necessarily have the confidence (or approval) to tell them about his dyslexia there and then. Sure there are logical, sensible ways to deal with that situation, he would have panicked though. Just throwing that into the mix.

If I was asked at the last minute I'd probably do the same (some people make detailed notes for themselves, I would aske them to provide those) If he did not know beforehand he'll be responsible for minutes he might not make all the notes detailed enough. He still needs to collect all inputs and make minutes from that. That'll be his job done.
I would not say he's genius as now you all might think he did not pay attention in the meeting :-)

I used to work with a woman who did this. She'd got really weak literacy skills (if somebody used a word she didn't understand, she'd type it phonetically and select the first result from spellchecker whether it was right or completely ridiculously wrong) and shouldn't have been anywhere near writing minutes but her boss was completely delusional about her strengths. No idea why the people doing the meetings put up with it.

Oop, I've re-read the OP, I would not ask the speakers, I would ask those who made notes for themselves.
It should have been made clear before the meeting starts who is taking minutes!

Perhaps he wasn't paying attention at the meeting and someone asked him at the end to draw the minutes up which is why he's now sending the email to everyone.