Meeting in general (definition)

A meeting is a gathering of two or more people that has been convened for the purpose
of achieving a common goal through verbal interaction, such as sharing information or
reaching agreement. Meetings may occur face-to-face or virtually, as mediated by
communications technology, such as a telephone conference call, a skyped conference
call or a videoconference.
One can distinguish a meeting from other gatherings, such as a chance encounter (not
convened), a sports game or a concert (verbal interaction is incidental), a party or the
company of friends (no common goal is to be achieved) and a demonstration (whose
common goal is achieved mainly through the number of demonstrators present, not
through verbal interaction).
Meeting planners and other meeting professionals may use the term "meeting" to
denote an event booked at a hotel, convention center or any other venue dedicated to
such gatherings. In this sense, the term "meeting" covers a lecture (one
presentation), seminar (typically several presentations, small audience, one
day), conference (mid-size, one or more days), congress (large, several days),
exhibition or trade show (with manned stands being visited by passers-
by), workshop (smaller, with active participants), training course, team-building
session and kick-off event.
Meeting reports usually include:

 the names of the participants,

 the agenda items covered,
 decisions made by the participants

 the follow-up actions committed to by participants,

 due dates for the completion of commitments, and
 any other events or discussions worth documenting for future review or history.

Exemplary meeting minutes focus on decisions made during the meeting and
commitments made by the participants. The commitments are accompanied by due
dates and any other details necessary for a shared understanding by meeting
participants.
Meeting Reports (Minutes)
Minutes, also known as protocols or, informally, notes, are the instant written record
of a meeting or hearing. They typically describe the events of the meeting and may
include a list of attendees, a statement of the issues considered by the participants, and
related responses or decisions for the issues.
Minutes are the official written record of the meetings of an organization or group. They
are not transcripts of those proceedings. The minutes should contain mainly a record of
what was done at the meeting, not what was said by the members. The organization
may have its own rules regarding the content of the minutes.
For most organizations or groups, it is important for the minutes to be terse and only
include a summary of the decisions. A verbatim report (transcript) is typically not useful.
Unless the organization's rules require it, a summary of the discussions in a meeting is
neither necessary nor appropriate.
The minutes of certain groups, such as a corporarte board of directors, must be kept on
file and are important legal documents. Minutes from board meetings are kept
separately from minutes of general membership meetings within the same
organization. Also, minutes of executive sessions may be kept separately. Committees
are not required to keep formal minutes although less formal notes may be taken. For
committees, their formal records are the reports submitted to their parent body.
Format
Generally, minutes begin with the name of the body holding the meeting (e.g., a board)
and may also include the place, date, list of people present, and the time that
the chair called the meeting to order.
Since the primary function of minutes is to record the decisions made, all official
decisions must be included. If a formal motion is proposed, seconded, passed, or not,
then this is recorded. The voting tally may also be included. The part of the minutes
dealing with a routine motion might note merely that a particular motion was "moved by
Ann and passed". It is not strictly necessary to include the name of the person who
seconds a motion. Where a tally is included, it is sufficient to record the number of
people voting for and against a motion, but requests by participants to note their votes
by name may be allowed. If a decision is made by roll-call vote, then all of the individual
votes are recorded by name. If it is made by general consent without a formal vote, then
this fact may be recorded.
The minutes may end with a note of the time that the meeting was adjourned.
Minutes are sometimes submitted by the person who is responsible for them (often the
secretary) at a subsequent meeting for review. The traditional closing phrase is
"Respectfully submitted" (although this is no longer common), followed by the officer's
signature, his or her typed (or printed) name, and his or her title.
Types of meeting reports
There are several distinct types of meeting reports in use at the ILO. As you encounter
each of these types, you will notice considerable overlap in style and presentation.

Agenda-based minutes

These are the minutes taken at scheduled meetings for which there is an agenda
either distributed before the meeting or announced by the chairperson at the beginning
of the meeting. The minutes should follow the framework set up by the agenda. These
are most common for internal meetings such as departments or units within the
Organization.

Notes for the file

These are used to record the discussions and conversations at meetings between ILO
officials and usually key people outside the Organization. They are usually issue-
based.

Mission reports

Mission reports can be described as a description of events and discussions that have
occurred over the course of a travel duty to another country, like a field office or in
response to a special event. Sometimes they are more specifically focused on a
meeting or series of meetings that have occurred during the mission. In this latter case,
the reports are structured very much like records of meetings. These records function
like meeting reports, with lists of attendees and a focus on who said what rather than
the style of agenda-based meetings.

Final reports on symposia, meetings, ILC sessions, etc.

These reports are very common at the ILO and serve as a written record of what was
said at a meeting. This type of record is really focused on capturing the substance of
the discussions that are so important to the ILO’s practice of inclusion and dialogue.
Meeting Minutes as a Historical Document
As a historical document, they are also useful for documenting the key ideas or
discussions that led to the making of a decision. For example, answering questions later
when a team member says, "what ever were we thinking when we chose this goal."

Effective meeting minutes lay out the five alternatives the team discussed and the key
reason why one was selected over the other available paths.

Effective meeting minutes for the typical business meeting do not need to record every
discussion.

They also do not need to, and shouldn't, state who said what. Nor, should they
document what every participant says in detail. In the example given, an effective note
taker summarizes the discussion rather than writing down every word.

(Recognize that this rule is different for other types of meetings in such situations as
legal action, court hearings, and so forth.

These minutes do require an exact record of the conversation and statements.) But,
your typical workplace meeting does not.
When and How to Share the Meeting Minutes
Ideally, meeting minutes are disseminated to meeting participants electronically at the
end of the meeting. Doing this, the participants have immediate notice of their
commitments and deadlines. If this is not possible (for example, the note taker wants to
clean up errors) the note taker should disseminate the meeting minutes within 24 hours
of the meeting.

The minutes serve as a reminder of the commitments team members made during the
meeting. They help participants transfer their meeting commitments to their calendars
and to do lists. They serve as a reminder of any item that must reach participants prior
to the next meeting.

(This can eliminate one of the most significant problems with meetings, in general—
passing out information at the meeting so that participants spend the meeting reading
rather than interacting.) After all, isn't interaction the point of a meeting? For anything
else, you have tools like email and Yammer.

You'll want to review your prior meeting's minutes at the start of the next meeting so that
people can check them for correctness and next steps.

Meeting minutes are an effective contributor to successful meetings when minutes are
appropriately written and distributed in a timely manner. This is especially true when a
team has formed strong norms that support its business success.
How Do Organizations Handle Taking Meeting Minutes?
Critical to a meeting’s success, the note taker or recorder documents the meeting for
participants, history, and employees who need to know what transpired at the meeting.
Without full meeting minutes, the meeting’s prospects for success are diminished.

The employee who takes the meeting minutes is usually a member of the team and
takes the notes while participating in the meeting. In meetings that have legal or
government related proceedings, ramifications, or requirements such as hearings,
required corporate board meetings, or depositions, a nonparticipating individual takes
the official minutes and often records the proceedings.

The employee who records the minutes must have an ear for detail to record accurately.
The employee must also multitask effectively to participate in the meeting while
recording the minutes.

In some meetings, the same employee takes the minutes at every meeting. In others,
the role of minute taker passes from employee to employee. Like meeting leadership,
the role of the note taker builds leadership, communication, and effective meeting
leadership skills.
What Are the Requirements of a Meeting Minutes Note Taker?
The requirements for the recorder or note taker include:

 Record accurately the decisions, commitments and major discussion points

made at a meeting.
 Record the action items that meeting members committed to doing along with the
due date that members committed to making. Action items have a name attached,
but the general discussion does not state who said what in informal workplace
meetings.
 Review the major decisions and the assignments or voluntary commitments and
action items at the end of the meeting so participants can review and agree on
happenings and commitments before leaving the meeting.
 The meeting leader may ask the note taker to recap the discussion periodically
during a meeting.
 In an ongoing series of meetings, the note taker takes a minute to review the
meeting minutes at the beginning of the next meeting. The employees attending
can add to or correct anything that they disagree with in the minutes.
 Distributing a copy of the meeting minutes within 24 hours of the meeting has
been the standard recommendation of meeting facilitators for years. Now,
however, the recorder most likely took the minutes on an electronic device such
as a laptop or iPad. So, the note taker should distribute the meeting notes after a
quick review of spelling, grammar, and clarity—often at or within minutes of the
meeting.

The recorder is a role that a meeting must have to ensure that the results of a meeting
are communicated and acted upon by the participants. Without the notes, the
participants must rely on the memory of the other participants. Guaranteed, this is not a
good plan.

The note taker's documentation of a meeting is necessary for the success of a meeting,
just as documentation is necessary for improving employee performance.
 Writing a Meeting Reports (phase 2)
Can I write a meeting report?
Not all conferences permit blogging or tweeting from the meeting. It is therefore
important to check whether this is allowed. Most of the time you will find guidelines on
the website for the meeting. If you do, make sure to follow the guidelines strictly,
especially regarding the policy on unpublished data (see below). If you cannot find any
guidelines, do not assume that you can report on the meeting. It is best to contact the
meeting organisers and let them know what you are planning. Most of the time the
organisers are very happy to have someone spreading the word about the meeting, but
occasionally they will want to read through your post before you publish it, or be sent
the link once the post is available so that they may share your post.
What should I write about?
Three aspects of meetings are of interest to the community:

 Research presented
As you are writing for other scientists, the research presented is likely to be the
longest proportion of your post. Are there any talks or projects that you found
particularly interesting? Are there common themes running through the meeting
(e.g. a new technique or model system that many people are using, or a specific
topic that is gathering attention)? Did certain talks generate many questions or
were followed by exciting discussion during the breaks?

 Additional events
Does the conference include additional workshops, e.g. on careers, skills, etc?
Such events often include the sharing of ideas, tips and experience, which other
researchers may be interested in hearing about.

 The ‘feeling’ of the meeting

Where is the meeting taking place? How does that make the meeting special or
different? For example, if the conference is taking place at a ski resort maybe
you have met one of the speakers at the end of the ski slope and that was a
chance to chat! Or maybe it is taking place in an exciting city and you had the
chance to see the sights or sample some local delicacy. This may sound
superfluous but will make your post less formal and more personal!

It is impossible to mention every talk (especially if there are several concurrent

sessions) or every event. A meeting report is your personal perspective on the meeting
so you will have to naturally pick and choose what you find most interesting. If you are
concerned about this then start your post by stating your area of research and scientific
interests to explain your selection.
Unpublished data
As mentioned above, conferences often have very specific guidelines on how you can
report on someone’s work (published on unpublished), so make sure to follow these
strictly.
If you have permission to report from the meeting but have not been given any specific
guidelines, then you should never mention unpublished data without explicit permission
from the speaker. You can choose therefore to only mention published work, or to
contact the speakers and ask them for permission to mention their unpublished work. If
you mention published data then include a link to the paper if possible. It is also polite to
send a copy of the post to the speakers and/or organisers of the meeting before
publishing, to make sure that you are not misrepresenting the work.
Style and format
The Node is a blog, and therefore the style of a post does not have to be as
formal as a paper or review. Be professional, but you can show your personality
by being more personal than in other types of scientific writing. Read previous
posts on the Node and in other blogs, and find a style that you like and feel
comfortable with. It is also important to consider your audience. The Node is read
mostly by developmental biologists, so you should write for a scientific, but non-
specialist, audience. For example, you don’t need to explain what DNA is, but
you might have to give a little background to what FGF does, for those not
working in that field.
As it is a blog, the Node also doesn’t have strict restrictions on length or format.
We generally recommend that posts are around 1,000 words, and it can be
useful to divide them into sections. We encourage writers to include photographs
or videos (although do not take photographs of slides or posters without the
permission of the authors).
 Writing a Meeting Minutes

Taking meeting minutes is essential to a meeting: you have your project written with
plenty of important details such as: who is responsible for what action, when, how, and
so on.
You may or may not be asking yourselves: “What are, and how to take meeting
minutes?”
Meeting minutes can be defined as written or recorded documentation that is used to
inform people of what happened during the meeting and define the next step
planned. To write effective meeting minutes you should include:
 The names of the participants
 Agenda items
 Calendar or due dates
 Actions or tasks
 The main points
 Decisions made by the participants
 Record what is the most important points
 Future decisions
 Documents: images, attached files
Before the meeting: you need to prepare the different topics to be addressed during
the meeting, noting what you know about them in order to save time and to be able to
focus on important topics during the meeting. If not, you might end up on the margins of
the meeting being too busy taking notes.

During the meeting: meeting minutes are an effective contributor to successful

meetings, yet they need to be appropriately written and distributed in time. The main
problem with reports is that they take a long time to be written down properly, and that
they must be sent quickly after the meetings to let everyone know their next projects or
actions.
You need to build your notes as the meeting progresses: a good way of organizing your
note-taking is to differentiate actions from remarks as well as noting the different actions
per person with a deadline.

After the meeting: type out your notes in a logical manner and not chronologically. It
needs to be organized to be sent out to your colleagues. Also, adding a short summary
organized per person and per project at the end of the minutes helps your colleagues
quickly glance at the minutes and spot the actions they need to realize within seconds.

At Beesy we know how essential meetings are. For this reason, the Beesy solution
automates your reporting and helps you save time:
 Smart note taking
 Audio recording
 Add participants by name, last name, email adress and initials – in the ‘People’ Tab
 Create automatic meeting minutes from your organized notes with one click
 Instantly send the meeting minutes to participants