How to minute take in meetings?

[Teandtoast1]

I haven’t done minute taking since I was about 17 in my admin apprenticeship.

Im minute taking a complex employee investigation all this week and don’t want to mess up.

Am I just summing up the conversations ?manager said it doesn’t have to be vertabim.

Yes you are
Note key points are who said them

All parties will want them to be correct so don't be afraid to:
Seek clarity
Ask for a pause to recap
Ask to recap your notes say every half hour

I normally try and capture the gist of the conversation but always have in the back of my mind the notes could be used in a tribunal. So I never add words that aren’t used etc.
I have my own version of shorthand now as I’ve been taking minutes in meetings for so long.

I always record meetings and then use the recording to write up my minutes. I note take on key important points but the recording means I can actively participate.

You aren't meant to participate if you are minuting and you need to ask everybodies permission if you record, so you can't if someone says no.

I have had to do this in the past and dont like it much .

Is it in person each time or via teams / zoom/ etc ?
In any case ask if it is ok for you to record the video / conversation however do NOT relay on this entirely as it may be muffled / distorted or stop half way through but use it as a back up rather than primary source .

Regardless as to if you can / can not record ;
Start with ( do before hand if you know the details )
Date , time , location, reason for meeting , people attending , person leading the meeting. if there are more than 3 people or people with the same initials write a key ie
SB - Sam Beckett
TT - Tea and Toast
MD - managing director
TTm Terrance Troublemaker

Though I dont think it will need to be verbatim , it will need to be close to it as your notes nay be used to prove what the said / admitted / denied .

It is also very important to note who said what so use the person that is speaking initials ,
So I would write
MD - asked TTm if he was aware why he was brought into the meeting
TTm - said no and would like it explaining
SB - explains that TTm is accused of **

TTm said he did not *** it was . . . . . . (add this persons initials to the key )

I have found that when someone is accused of doing something wrong they tend to try to go off on a tangent saying they did not know it was wrong / someone else did it/ they were told it was ok to do it so there can be a lot to try to get down quickly , in this kind of case names and dates are important.

Dont be afraid to ask people to clarify what the said but take care they don't change what was said once they have had a second or two to think about it .
Also you can ask the person running the meeting to pause for a few seconds just so you can catch up a bit .
Dont worry about spelling or grammar , they can be corrected later .

Dont let your own feeling of the manager / employee / situation sway the way you write things .

Lots of shorthand (that you will understand later) abbreviations and initials. Factual points not emotive. Note any action points and who is responsible. Use the agenda as the basis.

Get as many papers as possible before meeting so that you don't have to type everything out.

ask if you can record for producing the minutes.
be sure to delete after you have produced the minutes.

personally I type whilst listening. but if you don't have a good speed and can't type blind hand written notes might be better.

as pp say, it's fine to ask for clarification.

if you have an agenda you can use that to structure the minutes.
also ask if there is a specific template you should follow.

type ip the minutes immediately after so you don't forget what your abbreviations mean.

I did this for the first time recently. I quickly scribbled what everyone said, using initials as above, then wrote it up straight away after. I sent it to all parties after and they had to confirm that they agreed to the content. Don't record every word, just bullet point the main things.

Online or in person???

Fab thanks all! It’s being recorded via teams so I can go back over it once it’s finished.

It's good that it's been recorded on teams but as I said up thread don't rely on it completely, I have had a few hiccups with teams ( haven't we all !) Where the sound recording quality is shocking.

You get a written transcript on teams too that can help once the meeting is over. Sometimes it does not always make sense because of accents etc but it helps as well as the recording.

I've minute taken in employee investigations before. I do try to make the notes as detailed and verbatim as possible. The minutes were agreed by the two investigators (myself and my colleague) and the people being interviewed before being finalised. I come from a research background and was trained in the value of detailed notes of interviews.

The Union rep praised my minutes as the best he had ever seen in an investigation.

I think you lose a lot in writing brief notes and I also think it can introduce bias.

We did write a report of our findings too, but the detailed interview notes I had taken were there for everyone at the final panel to read and consider too.

@indianwoman that’s not how it works in our meetings. I’m there to provide info for the Board (11 very senior industry people) as well as being responsible for all meeting papers, including the Agenda and Minutes. We’re a very small team in our office (3) so don’t have an office junior to be responsible for minute taking. Everyone is expected to pitch in and no job is beneath any of us.

Being able to record Minutes (and everyone is always aware that a recording is taking place) is, for us, vital and a matter of efficiency.

I was about to post exactly this. However, clarify to each party that you are independent and minute that too.

A key phrase I always use to cover things when they’ve waffled off on various tagents is:

“There followed a lengthy discussion, during which it was agreed to a, b, c and d.”

Also to save writing out “x asked y this and y replied that” you can use: “In response to a question from x, y said …”

It’s also useful to add Action Points at the end of the Minutes where you can list the key things to take out of the meeting and who is responsible for them - saves having to read back through the whole lot to remind yourself what needs following up on.

You aren't meant to participate if you are minuting

Says who?

I can only do decent minutes if I have a recording.

As this was originally poster almost a year ago hopefully @Teandtoast1 has finished writing the minutes.

Probably not

No seriously, having an app for this should be so easy in this day and age. Or open up teams, press a switch and it transcripts the meeting, as minutes automatically. It shouldn't be that hard.

Have you ever seen auto generated subtitles ?

I really wouldn't rely on them.

I realise this is an old thread, but the Teams transcript of a meeting is usually hilarious in its surreal inaccuracy, especially if the participants have a range of regional accents.