to hate doing minutes of a meeting

[CaptSkippy]

Last week, due to the absence of a person who usually does the minutes, I was asked two minutes for before a meeting started to do minutes.

I hate doing minutes. I can't keep an accurate record of a meeting and participate in it at the same time. People also talk too quickly for me to take notes of all that was said. The end result is that I always end up with scores of complaints any time I have taken minutes. It also takes me a really long time to write them up afterwards and if things are busy with my main responsibilities people keep pestering me for them when I really have no time to write it all out and share them.

These days I make sure that minutes are not part of my job repsonsibilities anymore and I refuse to even consider a job where that is a requirement.

I told the person who asked that I am no good at doing minutes, that I never end up with anything useful and that I only jot down a few things for myself. Despite my telling him this, he came back later and asked me what I got. I got all of two lines of the two hours meeting. I hope his own notes were more useful, but I never agreed to do them.

So was I being unreasonable?

Why is minute taking still a thing? Surely recording it then taking the points from it is far more sensible and accurate. Plus if there's disagreement later, there's proof.

In our organisation all meetings are now by zoom - recorded so makes minutes easier.

@HalfShrunkMoreToGo, that really useful thank you, I dont often set the meetings up but if I do I will use this

I used to quite like taking minutes as it gave me 'power' to ensure that actions were clear.
I never recorded who said what, only final decisions and actions.
For contentious things I might have written 'there was some debate .... but it was agreed ....'
For very contentious things I might have written 'there was some debate, arguments for A were ...., arguments for B were .....and in the end JoeBloggs (chair) decided to go for A'.

There is such a difference between:
Action: Jim to look into the options for X
and
Action: Jim to look into the options for X and circulate a proposal by Y date and if no objections to implement by Z date.

I always find that minutes only seem to be needed for senior people in businesses. Everyone else is expected to take their own notes for what work needs done. I guess somehow, senior people manage to lose the ability to think or write once they get promoted. Explains why so many bad decisions are made.

Oh god, I've just agreed to take on our company CoSec role, and I am dreading having to take minutes!!

Some good tips on this thread, though, thank you to all the PPs.

Teams has a transcription tool so if you set it up it will transcribe everything said by everyone and the provide it at the end

Have you ever actually used this though? Maybe it's just the accents (our team is made up of scottish, irish and welsh accents) but the transcription that came out of our last meeting was hilarious, and would have been absolutely no use if you were relying on it for minutes. 'Clear and concise' for example, somehow became 'thieves in the night'

But yes, I hate minute taking with a passion, and dread every meeting.

Can you not just record it on your phone and type it up from that?

@CaptSkippy

I am in my forties. I work in tech and I am only 1 of two women in my department.

And this is exactly why you were asked to do them! It's always the woman in a room full of men who picks these things up. Ditto booking the meeting, chasing up people for slides etc for the meeting, making visitors drinks for the meeting etc......

I don't like it either and agree you can't really participate and do minutes.

I take my laptop loaded with the agenda and type notes under each section.

Then after the meeting all you have to do is spellcheck.

Doesn't that mean "someone" has to sit through the whole meeting again?

@RockaLock

Oh god, I've just agreed to take on our company CoSec role, and I am dreading having to take minutes!!

Some good tips on this thread, though, thank you to all the PPs.

I'm CoSec for my day job and an off shoot that we established. I'm also very involved operationally in both companies so I use the agenda as my minutes template and add what I will be reporting as bullet points in advance of the meeting. Means I have a cheat sheet for my own report and don't have to worry about missing bits when I tidy up my notes afterwards. Once you find a way that works for you, it's not as daunting but definitely type as you go rather than handwriting and transcribing.

I guess somehow, senior people manage to lose the ability to think or write once they get promoted.
I've worked places where it seemed like that! I used to have a weekly meeting where I'd literally type up the notes as we were walking into the next one, utterly useless. Now they are board meeting minutes so a legal requirement.

People also talk too quickly for me to take notes of all that was said

Why are you writing down "all" that was said? In the decades I've spent doing this it usually goes something like:

Agenda item - few words to outline what's being discussed
Suggestions/Input offered (with names if necessary)
Details of decision made

I used to have a job that was minute taking for all governance meetings on our business, my tips would be:-

Look at a set of minutes that are in the preferred style of the company and adopt the same language, complexity/brevity.

If the meeting has a pack, print it out and use that to take notes on. You can underline statements in the pack and use arrows to it to add comments etc.

Don't record general chat/discussion, just note down any challenges/agreed views. If one person expresses a view and several others then agree using slightly l different language then don't write it all down, It can read for example
"the meeting discussed XYZ, Mr W challenged the proposed decision stating ABC, other attendees were in agreement with this view and it was agreed to defer a decision until further clarification was sought."

As opposed to he said, she said then he said.

Adopt your own shorthand. I used ticks or crosses for positive/negative approvals or views and then captured key statements of words.

If I really missed something or didn't understand I would just put a few ?? by the agenda item and contact the speaker at a later date to clarify my understanding.

I hope this helps and practice really does help, probably not what you want to hear though!

Sounds like that old classic - you were asked to take the mins because you're female.
Could you send an email out to all the participants saying - 'Apologies, X has asked me to write up the mins from the meeting on [date] &, as I wasn't aware I was given this role, my notes aren't sufficient. Can you please let me have any salient points that were discussed that should be included in the minutes?'
Next time you attend a meeting, check if someone is there to do the minutes (otherwise it will keep happening) & if not, suggest a rota, with you last because you've done your bit!
There is nothing wrong with being upfront about it - you were put on the spot with no time to prepare & your role is not to take minutes!

I would say "I cant do full minutes but can not a few action notes"
I would have also said at the end could people just confirm their actions for the notes. I attended a similar meeting and still managed more than 2 sentences though!!
Minute taking is an under appreciated skill.
However if at the next meeting you are asked I would say that you did it last time and isny it better to rotate responsibility.

We take it in turns to do the minutes and like you, I feel I can't participate and keep an accurate record. As our meetings are on Teams, we have started recording them, but still make some brief notes. We have noticed our meetings are shorter and there is no general chit-chat. It also means if anyone is absent, they can view the meeting if there are any actions for them. We always ask if everyone consents to the recording, but not sure if this is necessary or not.

I just can’t imagine just saying oh no I can’t do it. Everything I’m asked to do at work I give 100% and try my hardest. 2 points from a 2 hour meeting isn’t that. Is this public sector?!? Because I’d be looking at a disciplinary in private sector for this, at least a performance improvement plan! It’s not the hard!!

You shouldn't be expected to be participating and taking minutes, one or the other

@Spongebobfrillypants except the OP can't say she wasn't aware she was given the role as she was explicitly asked and didn't say no. And she clearly hasn't done her bit as she decided not to take the minutes, just without telling the person who asked her.

While it often is sexism that leads to the woman in the room taking the minutes, in this case it could just be because the OP had almost nothing to contribute to the meeting (she says so herself) so was best placed to be able to take the minutes.

OP next time, just record the meeting.

@ComtesseDeSpair

Accurate minute taking is a skill, and I think it’s both unfair and remiss of a manager or project leader to ask it of somebody who doesn’t have that skill / hasn’t had the opportunity to develop the experience.

I’m a company secretary. I love taking minutes and the whole process which follows. I get paid an awful lot of money to do it. It isn’t just taking notes of what happened in the meeting, but I suspect that that view of it is what leads some managers to ask it of people who don’t know how to do it and hate doing it.

Same, I'm ICSA qualified with a background in governance. I only do the high level board/council meetings now but I pride myself on being able to minute any meeting. It's a real skill, not a menial task to be foisted onto someone without the skills to do it properly.

Officering meetings is very important and it can lead to a very interesting and well-paid career in governance.

I found if you took the minutes you could not really participate in the discussions.

[quote user1471457751]@Spongebobfrillypants except the OP can't say she wasn't aware she was given the role as she was explicitly asked and didn't say no. And she clearly hasn't done her bit as she decided not to take the minutes, just without telling the person who asked her.

While it often is sexism that leads to the woman in the room taking the minutes, in this case it could just be because the OP had almost nothing to contribute to the meeting (she says so herself) so was best placed to be able to take the minutes.[/quote]
I was going to say that. Perhaps it had been recognised the difficulty of taking minutes and participating which is why op was asked