Writing minutes these days is not left to the secretary alone. With the availability of portable computers you may attend a meeting without your secretary and you are required to produce minutes. Many people do not know how to write minutes and when called upon to do so will not be able to write minutes.

Writing minutes requires an individual to put what people were discussing verbally into writing, the minutes has to be flowing from the opening to the closing of the meeting. Below is how one should write any minutes arising from a meeting without a problem

Start with the Title:   What was the meeting all about, venue of the meeting and what Time and date did the meeting start. How your title would look like, as you can see the title below suggest that this was a monthly meeting held at the Office and the date spelled out well

MINUTES OF THE MONTHLY MEETING HELD AT THE OFFICE ON 8^TH JUNE 2009

Now you are done with the Title, the second part of minute writing is to list members present and absent or absent with apologies and this is done as illustrated below

MEMBERS PRESENT

George – Director - Chairing

James – Finance Manger

Grace – Security Office

Mary – Secretary

N.B Here list all members who were available during the meeting, indicate the person who was chairing the meeting and the Secretary who was taking minutes

MEMBERS ABSENT – indicate all members that were suppose to attend the meeting but failed to turn up i.e. Veronica - Accountant

MEMBERS ABSENT WITH APOLOGIES – Indicates members who were notified for the meeting but failed to turn up without any apologies from them; John Smith

AGENDA - Here is the summary of discussion or what the meeting was all about

1. Matters arising from the previous meeting’s minutes
2. Procurements Policies
3. Human Resource Policies
4. Any other business

Move to the minutes writing, here is where you will be writing all the discussion and resolution that were passed during the meeting

Minute 1/6-8-2009: Matters arising from the previous meeting’s minutes

Here write about the discussion of the previous meeting, actually members will go through the previous meeting minutes briefly and noting any changes or addition to be added. Put down what members have said concerning the previous meeting minutes

Minute 2/6-8-2009: Procurements Policies

After the discussion of the matters arising you now moves to the minutes of the day, write them as the meeting goes. Write suggestion made on the procurement policies etc

Minute 3/6-8-2009: Human Resource Policies

Move to the next minute as in this case is Human Resource Policies, write all discussions and resolution about Human Resource Policies

Minute 4/6-8-2009: A.O.B

Here write down any other issues which were not in the meeting agenda, date of the next meeting should be written here, i.e. the next meeting will be on 22^nd July 2009. There being no other business, the meeting ended at 17:15 pm

Signed:

Chairperson ……………………………… Date …………………………

Secretary …………………………………. Date …………………………

After the completion of minutes writing you are expected to send the out to members present to get their concurrence with the same after which you the Secretary and Chairman will sign and will be kept for your future records