Minute

Taking
Mini-eBook

a quick guide for

personal and executive
assistants

Margaret Young Business Services

Copyright Margaret Young

 The 10 Commandments of Minute Taking
1. Have an agenda
Whether the chairperson prepares it, you write it or maybe you write it together, insist on
having an agenda. Trying to take minutes of a meeting with no agenda is torture and the
meeting itself is likely to be unproductive anyway.

2. Research
Look at previous minutes or if it’s a brand new meeting, minutes of a meeting that the chair
has been involved in. this will give you an idea of style and content.

3. Stop writing
You don’t have to write every single word down; your hand does not need to be on the go
constantly. Be confident enough to take it all in and then summarise.

4. Know your verbs

Don’t keep repeating the same “said”, “stated” etc, keep it varied with “questioned”,
“agreed”, “reiterated” etc.

5. Summarise the discussion

Don’t waste too much time and energy on “she said, he said”, summarise the discussion by
outlining the conclusion to the topic.

6. Focus on the actions

Make sure they are crystal clear and concise.

7. Action owners
If the action owners were identified, name them, if they weren’t, ask the chair to verify
before completing the minutes. If it is appropriate to your role, you might be required to
follow up with these colleagues so having the minutes to refer to is essential.

8. Fact checks
If you are unsure, double check any facts, figures and statistics that were quoted during the
meeting with the attendees afterward. It’s important for accuracy and they will appreciate
the attention to detail.

9. Ask for feedback

Ask the chair to “track changes” when approving the minutes, that way you can learn their
style. If they just make the changes themselves and send it back, you won’t learn anything
from it.

10. Don’t take it personally

Some chairs make multiple changes, some to the point of completely rewriting, no matter
how good the minute taker is. Please don’t take it personally.

Copyright Margaret Young

 The 5 questions you need to ask before you minute a meeting for the first time

Love it or hate it, minute taking is part and parcel of the day-to-day role of the PA/EA for the most
part. Personally, I have always found them slightly painful, but through experience and training, I have
made my peace with them and gotten my technique down to a fine art! Having worked in a few
different roles where I liaised with a large variety of stakeholders I have learned to be adaptable and
how to apply the same principles to different situations. Suppose you are part of a wider admin pool
or just provide cross cover to other C level executives and you are asked to minute a meeting you have
never been involved in. Or you are asked to minute the meetings for a newly set up committee. Saying
“no thanks” is not an option, what do you do? You need to ask at least the following 5 questions:

Is there an agenda?

If you have ever tried to minute a meeting that didn’t have an agenda you will know that it is like
herding cats. I did this a couple of times and the “minutes” turned into “aide memoir”. Not a fun
experience. If there is no agenda, insist on one. You might go as far as drafting a basic one yourself
and ask the chairperson to amend it. By listing the topics as far as you know them, plus “any other
business (AOB)” and “date of next meeting” you will at least get the ball rolling and provide a starting
point. With permission, you could then circulate and ask meeting attendees to request items for the
agenda.

Who is who?

Have you ever had to minute or attend a meeting and you didn’t know who everyone was? Very
distracting. A good chairperson will make sure the minute taker and all the other attendees are
introduced. If you can, before a meeting with new stakeholders, Google them and save their pic in
your MS Outlook contacts. Don’t forget if you’re using LinkedIn that it informs the person that you
looked at their profile.

Are there data confidentiality issues I need to be aware of?

Find out what the legal obligations are in your company or department and the data confidentially
issues in relation to your industry. In Ireland, The Freedom of Information (FOI) Act gives the public
the right to access official records held by government departments or other public bodies as defined
by the act. You also need to find out if there are legal obligations to keep the handwritten notes and
draft versions after the minutes are approved.

What is my relationship with the Chairperson?

As mentioned above, a good chair will make sure there is an agenda to be followed and that the
attendees are introduced. They will also summarise each point and action before moving on to the
next one as well as making sure people don’t veer too much off track. Sit as close to the chair as
possible so if needed you can seek clarifications or help with timekeeping.

What way will I approach version control?

Clarify with the chair if they have sole approval of the minutes or if the group will be invited to make
amendments and corrections. If they are, keep careful control of the version by using V01, etc. at the
end of the file names. Don’t forget to remove the “draft” watermark from the final version and send
it as a pdf to avoid future headaches and confusion.

Copyright Margaret Young

 Margaret Young

QQI Qualified Trainer offering 1 to 1/small group training to administrators from all
industries in Ireland

• PA/EA interview preparation

• Minute taking
• MS Outlook productivity
• Event planning

For other training topics including Productivity, Time Management and Virtual Assistant
skills, I work with a number of personally vetted training partners.

I have spoken at/provided group training at the following conferences:

• PA Life magazine panel discussion at the PA Show 2019 in London.

• Executive PA Forum in Dublin in both 2017 and 2018.
• Practically Perfect PA Virtual Summit 2017.

Training from 99 euro for 1 to 1 training

Get in touch – 0877027445/margaret@trainmyadmin.ie

Copyright Margaret Young