[KatieR]

Hello to everyone out there! I was reading a post that has led me to a few questions/concerns I have regarding Meetings, Agendas, Action Items, etc. Right now, we're holding heaps of meetings that I am attending for the duty of taking notes. Our company has a long track record of holding many meetings with little outcome, which is obviously a bad idea. What would you say the time between the meeting and sending out minutes/action items should be? Same day? Longer? Who should proof them? Honestly, I've been doing this for 6 months and have taken it on myself, but need improvement on the process for fear of drowning in agendas and old meeting notes.

And, if an executive does not have an admin, what is the best way to be sure their action item is completed? I'm the President's Executive Assistant and I feel as if I can easily start being everyone's assistant if I am not a better steward of my time and resources - which is where you all come in! Let me know what methods you think I should try.

I think this website/tool is a great idea - I'm looking forward to pooling knowledge and resources - thanks for helping the newly administratively gifted out!!!

[LauraBlinn]

KatieR
I have done the minutes for our Management Meetings for many years. I would record them, then listen to the recording and condense them. Some of these meetings lasted 4-5 hours! UGH! I could not get them out the very next day. The smaller meetings within or between departments, the note taker must have these minutes out by the end of the next business day.

I also have been in the position of being everyone's assistant. My boss is gone alot so I help out where I can, and it seems like in my company I am the go to person for alot of things.

Hope this helps.

Laura Blinn

[Toni Breeden]

KatieR -

First, I would like to address your comment concerning the company's past of holding many meetings with little outcome. My first bit of advice is to, if you can, approach your boss and suggest fewer meetings that possess a more specific focus. By holding many meetings with little outcome, the company is losing money and you are wasting your time.

The issue of sending out minutes depends on the duration and frequency of meetings. My current company has one monthly meeting (held on a Wednesday) that lasts approx. 4 hours. These minutes are always delivered by end of day on Friday and that seems to work out very well. The execs like to have them to scan over the weekend. Keep in mind, however, that if your company continues to have many, shorter meetings, they may expect the minutes by end of day, next day.

Finally, my advice on being everyone's assistant is to always keep at the forefront of your mind the tasks that are of the highest priority. A short meeting with your boss wouldn't be bad idea so that the two of you can come up with a general idea of which responsibilities are of higher priority than others. After a while, when others are attempting to enlist your assistance, you will be able to gauge the priority level there and provide the appropriate level of assistance. In your case, it is crucial that you always remember you report to the President and consider his take on your assignments.

Hope that helps & best of luck!

[GeeBee]

KatieR

Holding meetings with little outcome is unproductive and can be frustrating - not just for the minute taker. In order to make a case for more effective meetings you might want to suggest implementing a Meeting Effectiveness Scorecard. The principles behind an effectiveness scorecard is to rate (say from 1 strongly disagree to 5 strongly agree) the efficiency of agenda/timing; actions; ground rules; inputs/outputs; unity; focus; mobilization and any other categories you deem important. In this way you have a measure of success or a reason a particular meeting should be cancelled or possibly rolled into another type of meeting/session. This is a concrete way to present meeting reform at your corporation.

Minute taking is an art and there are many courses available to help you with this process. Try your community college/administrative association or local administrative lectures to find sessions.

To help with the question of timing for sending out minutes and action items - you should consider action items your number one priority and these should be processed and sent out ASAP as this may effect other's work schedules. I agree with previous posts, minutes should be timed according to the meetings regularity. As a peronal note my advice is to get minutes completed as soon as possible - working on cold minutes is not fun, your thought process is broken and you can lose continuity.

Who should proof the minutes? Well, you should do your own proof read for spelling, grammar and formatting but the final proof for content accuracy should be done by the chair/spokesperson/facilitator, etc. Unapproved/unsigned minutes can be posted or sent out to facilitate processes but only if you post that they are unapproved minutes.

As far as responsbility to ensure that other executives/meeting attendees get their action items completed - I suggest to simply do your role as minute taker and ensure that the action items are completed and sent out to everyone a task has been assigned to. It is not your responsibility to follow up, it is their responsibility, once notified, to complete their task in the agreed upon timeframe.

I hope this answers your questions.

[Caroline Cloutier]

Hi Katie

I too take tons of meetings in my current position as assistant to two AVP's. I'm often attending meetings and need to get my minutes out as soon as possible. The main reason for this is because the action item deadline is often the same week!

If possible, see if management can have shorter meetings on a regular basis. Perhaps a weekly meeting for two hours is needed? When taking notes, I find a laptop in the meeting often helps. My typing is a lot faster than writing and therefore when I hear an action item or am not sure what the item is, I can just quickly type it and go back to my notes later on to determine if it's worth including. If you are ever unsure, ask. It's better to ask than to miss something important.

Also if you find you are taking on too many meetings, delegate the task to other assistants (if possible). It's not a bad thing to pass along a task in order for you to get your main work done.

[Patricia]

I am being spread pretty thin myself these days. It is hard to stay focussed if you are being pulled in too many directions. A friend of mine who is an Executive Assistant let me interview her for an article I wrote called The Art of Minute Taking. Perhaps it will help at least on the minute taking side of your question:

Laughing All the Way to Work: A Survival Blog for Today's Administrative Assistant: Search results for the art of minute taking

[LisaOlsen]

I was responsible for preparing the agenda and taking minutes at the management team meetings and board meetings. One technique I used that might help is using the same document template for both your agenda and the minutes. For example, I would do an agenda for the first meeting. Then at the start of the meeting, do a quick "save as" changing the Agenda to Minutes. Then I would type the minutes on that document following the agenda format. All the action items (responsible person, task and due date) were included in a table at the bottom of the minutes. After the meeting, I cleaned up the draft minutes for accuracy and grammar. When I got ready to prepare the next month's agenda, I opened the Minutes from the last meeting, did a "save as" for the new agenda and would just cut and past the action items to the top of the new agenda - they became the "old business" for the next meeting.All I had to do was delete the notes from previous minutes and add a few new agenda items. Since we normally used the same format for agenda items (dept reports, committee reports, etc) the agenda rarely changed much. I repeated the process for every meeting.

This system worked great and we started using it company wide for all meetings.

If anyone is interested in more info, let me know and I can see about posting the template to the site or send you an example.

[Patricia]

This is exactly the format I am interested in. I would love to see a template of your style of minute taking and agenda preparation. Especially how you handled the action items. Please either post it to the site or contact me directly at patriciaannrobb@rogers.com.

Did you always type the minute items in the order it was on the agenda, even though they might have talked about an agenda item out of order?

I like your style of minute taking because you can prepare ahead of time and then your minute taking will be easier as you go from item to item.

What kind of system do you have for numbering your motions for the minutes? Does it have something to do with the date of the last meeting?

Thanks

[gibbse]

Hi Lisa,
We are always looking for easier and faster ways for us to complete agenda's and minutes as quickly as we can so we can move on. You seem to have developed a great template. I would love to see a copy posted which we could adapt to our own needs, or if you are happy to email a template my address is gibbse@wyeth.com
I have just joined this site today and have already learnt so much!!! What a great site.
Emma

[kbrosn]

I would love to see the template too!
Thanks for sharing.
Kathleen

kbrosnihan@frc.mass.edu