Minute Taking Skills Made Easy

A meeting is an event where minutes are taken and hours wasted. – James T. Kirk, Captain of the USS Enterprise

Minute taking is an essential part of any successful and productive business meeting. The minute-taker must produce concise, easy-to-understand minutes to properly support organisational or departmental decision-making. This half-day minute taking training course provides fundamental approaches and techniques to take accurate, effective, and fast minutes.

Minute taking is often seen as the tedious job that no-one wants to do or is often delegated to the most junior person but, as has been observed, “History is written by people who attend meetings, stay until the end, and keep the minutes”.

It can be a skill to listen to the debate in meetings, understand what has happened, identify the decisions/policies made and record them in such a way that people who were not there can clearly understand what has happened.

This half-day minute taking training course takes delegates through understanding the role of the minute taker and providing tips. tricks and templates to ensure that their minutes are clear and accurate.

Course Content

• Define the meaning and role of minutes
• Pre-meeting preparation
• Using templates and formats
• Keywords vs sentences
• Essential information
• Actions vs decisions
• Managing confusion
• Recording vs précis
• Learning outcomes

By the end of this course participants will be able to:

• Prepare for meetings
• Write clear records
• Keep minutes short but accurate
• Make decisions and policy clear
• Take minutes confidently and effectively

Who is this minute taking course for?

• Personal Assistants
• Admin Support
• Administrators
• Secretaries
• Office Clerks
• HR Assistants

Or anyone tasked with the job of taking minutes from an informal team or departmental meetings to formal Board and committee meetings.