There are really only two types of “general meeting” – the Annual General Meeting and the Special General Meeting (SGM) which is sometimes called an Extraordinary General Meeting (EGM).

If the meeting is a “general meeting” as opposed to an ordinary or regular meeting, then the minutes which are approved are those of the last general meeting.

So if you have an AGM, and no other general meeting is held until the next AGM, then the minutes which are approved are those of the last AGM.

If you have an AGM, and then during the year you have an SGM or EGM, then the minutes that are approved at the SGM are those of the AGM – the last general meeting. Then, at the next AGM, the minutes which are approved are those of the SGM since it was the most recent general meeting.

Please Note: The author accepts no responsibility for anything which occurs directly or indirectly as a result of using any of the suggestions or procedures detailed in this blog. All suggestions and procedures are provided in good faith as general guidelines only and should be used in conjunction with relevant legislation, constitutions, rules, laws, by-laws, and with reasonable judgement.

The trick here is to prepare in advance. If you prepare the agenda and make it very detailed, then when the meeting is running, all you have to do is fill in the gaps on the agenda document and it becomes the minutes.

Most minute takers I know who move to taking minutes on a laptop, never go back to doing it manually.

Remember the key understanding you must have about minutes is that minutes are a record of what is decided and what is done, NOT what is said. Once you have that understanding then taking minutes on a computer is a breeze because you simply capture main points during discussion and then the final decision and then the action that is required.

People who have the most difficulty with minutes whether they are manual or on a computer are those who try to capture what people say – and this is not what minutes should be.

A great advantage of taking minutes on a laptop is that there is no transcribing later – a huge time saver!. You may need to edit slightly but it’s a much easier task than trying to transcribe handwritten notes.

I have been training in minute taking for over 25 years and now, about 70% of the minute takers I meet take their minutes directly onto a laptop and would never go back to handwriting.

It may take a person not used to a laptop a couple of meetings to get used to the idea of taking minutes directly onto the laptop but it is worth persevering.

There are other hidden advantages also. People who take minutes on a laptop are generally more highly regarded by the other people in a meeting than those who hand write minutes – it sounds crazy I know, but it’s true.

Also, if you do the minutes on a laptop, you can distribute them very soon after the meeting and that goes down very well indeed. It is ridiculous, but true, that minute takers are judged by the time it takes the minutes to be distributed far more than they are judged by the content of the minutes! The reason is that almost no-one reads the minutes, but they know when they receive them!

Please Note: The author accepts no responsibility for anything which occurs directly or indirectly as a result of using any of the suggestions or procedures detailed in this blog. All suggestions and procedures are provided in good faith as general guidelines only and should be used in conjunction with relevant legislation, constitutions, rules, laws, by-laws, and with reasonable judgement.

The answer is in two parts.

The first is to do with legislation or laws of the state you are in. Check with a local accountant as to how long financial records need to be kept – usually seven years in most jurisdictions, five in others, some have ten years – but check the law where you live.

Even though minutes are not necessarily subject to the same laws as financial records, this is a really good guide and it is smart to adhere to the same time frame as financial records.

Although it is rare, the rules or constitution of your organisation may dictate the time that minutes need to be kept also.

You must however check the laws in your state or country.

The second part of the answer is to do with the historical record.

It can be really great reading to read through minutes of 10, 15, or 30 years ago. The problem is that at the time they are recorded, people often do not see the historical value and so they dispose of the minutes.

My advice is to keep them for as long as possible if you can store them conveniently. You may like to keep a sample of minutes – say every 3rd or 4th set beyond 10 years. One thing is certain – historians find them fascinating and the more you can keep for as long as possible, future historians will thank you for it.

Please Note: The author accepts no responsibility for anything which occurs directly or indirectly as a result of using any of the suggestions or procedures detailed in this blog. All suggestions and procedures are provided in good faith as general guidelines only and should be used in conjunction with relevant legislation, constitutions, rules, laws, by-laws, and with reasonable judgement.

Most meetings will have certain items about which there is very little disagreement. An interesting observation of human behaviour however is that even where there is very little disagreement, human beings seem to want to talk and talk and talk. Even though everyone agrees, human beings seem to want everyone to know that they agree.

While this may be interesting and while it may stroke people’s egos, it doesn’t contribute greatly to the productivity and effectiveness of a meeting. The use of a Consent Schedule can help this enormously.

Here is the way it works – The person preparing the agenda usually the secretary/minute taker and/or chairman works with the other person so that two people together decide which issues on the agenda will create minimal disagreement or none. These items are all left on the agenda but they are copied to another document called the Consent Schedule.

The Consent Schedule becomes a list of all of the items on the agenda which the president/chairperson and the secretary believe will not require discussion but can simply be agreed. This list may be short with only two or three items, or in a longer meeting it may include many items, each of which may be small in detail but may still be significant but for which there is anticipated to be no disagreement.

The Consent Schedule is then placed as a separate item on the agenda but very early on in the meeting, probably immediately following the confirmation of the minutes. This item is often called confirmation of the agenda. It can also be a separate piece of paper or it can be physically printed into the agenda itself, whichever way here is how it works.

The person chairing the meeting states that the Consent Schedule needs to be agreed to and asks if there are any items on the Consent Schedule which people want withdrawn.

One voice allows anything to be taken from the Consent Schedule or, you may over a time, determine that two voices are required to take something from the Consent Schedule – it’s up to you. My suggestion is to start with two and if that doesn’t work, go to one. So any two people can say – I’d like item x taken off the Consent Schedule and it then is dealt with when that item on the agenda is reached, because remember you’ve copied items from the agenda to the Consent Schedule, you have not cut them from the agenda – so they’re still there.

So you may end up with, let’s say, five items on the Consent Schedule upon which no-one disagrees and which everyone is happy to agree to. A motion is then called to agree to the items “en masse” of “en bloc”. One motion can be used for them all. The motion would be that all items on the amended Consent Schedule be agreed. That is moved, seconded and put to the vote. If it is carried then those five items when they are reached on the agenda are simply skipped because they are already dealt with. If anyone wants to raise them then, then it’s too late, they were dealt with in the Consent Schedule.

As your group or meeting becomes more mature it will get better and better at leaving things on the Consent Schedule in recognition of the increased effectiveness it gives and in recognition of the increased time it allows for the issues that really are worthy of discussion or where there is discussion required to reach agreement.

Consent Schedules are a useful tool to use in any meeting, business meeting or voluntary association or government appointed board. It is a wonderful way to take out items from the agenda upon which there is no disagreement and shorten the meeting.

Please Note: The author accepts no responsibility for anything which occurs directly or indirectly as a result of using any of the suggestions or procedures detailed in this blog. All suggestions and procedures are provided in good faith as general guidelines only and should be used in conjunction with relevant legislation, constitutions, rules, laws, by-laws, and with reasonable judgement.

Firstly, just what are apologies? They are NOT a list of people who have not shown up. They ARE  a list of people who have asked for their apologies to be submitted to the meeting.

So what’s the big deal? Well 99 times out of 100 it isn’t an issue but just occasionally there can be some legal ramifications.

A story I heard recently will certainly stop you recording apologies when people have not aked for them to be recorded. A man was driving to a meeting and had an accident. Since he did not turn up at the meeting, they recorded his absence as an apology. Sounds fine so far.

The problem came when he made his insurance claim for the accident and of course said he was on his way to a meeting. The insurance company checked and found his apologies had been given and they interpreted that as meaning that he had no intention of going to the meeting (since he had given an apology) and he had therefore lied in his claim about where he was going.

Moral of the story is if you receive an aplogy, record it, if you don’t – the person is listed as “not present” or “absent” or left off completely. Most organisations simply record those present and those who have tendered an apology.

Please Note: The author accepts no responsibility for anything which occurs directly or indirectly as a result of using any of the suggestions or procedures detailed in this blog. All suggestions and procedures are provided in good faith as general guidelines only and should be used in conjunction with relevant legislation, constitutions, rules, laws, by-laws, and with reasonable judgement.

Firstly, casting votes are sometimes called second votes. They occur when a vote is taken in a meeting and there is an equal number of votes in favour as there is against.

Does you constitution allow a casting vote?

The first thing you must know is whether your constitution allows a casting vote to be exercised by the person in the chair. You MUST find that out before anything.

Many organisations allow their chairman, president, presiding officer to have a deliberative vote – that’s the vote they get because they are a member, as well as a casting vote to be used when there is “an equality of votes” or a tie.

Here are the important issues.

1. The casting vote can only be used if the person presiding has already cast their deliberative vote.  So if the chair puts the issue to the vote, but does not vote him or herself and there is a tie, then the casting vote does not apply because they have not yet exercised their deliberative vote. (The deliberative vote should be used at the same time as everyone else votes – see the post on deliberative voting)

If, after they have exercise their deliberative vote there is a tie, then the casting vote can be exercised.

2.  This is the really tricky bit for some people. A wise chair will nearly always exercise their casting vote to “preserve the status quo“. That means they will vote so the situation does NOT change. In most circumstances, that means that they will vote against the proposal although some proposals are worded so that a vote in favour preserves the status quo.

I can almost hear some people saying WHY????

The answer is that by preserving the status quo, the issue is free to be raised again at a later meeting when there is more support. But the reason wise people vote this way is that if the casting vote is used to change something, then the decision has in reality been made by one person – the person in the chair. As many people are in favour as are against and it is not a sound decision.

I have read research that shows that decisions that are made upon a casting vote nearly always get reversed at a following meeting and the people who regularly use their casting votes to make changes, are often challenged for their position when they come up for election.

Now there will be times when the chair will use their casting vote to make a change. These are things where there has been considerable debate over many meetings and a decision simply has to be made.  These situations are rare but they do occur.

Bottom line is – use casting votes with great care.

Many venues save money on the chairs they buy and this can have a disastrous effect on your meeting if it is lengthy.

Always go and check the chairs at the venue and if necessary either ask them to hire in different chairs or go to a venue with decent chairs and make sure you tell the first venue why you have moved.

If chairs are uncomfortable, it creates tension and discomfort and that leads to conflict because people get short tempered.

Chairs and food have more influence on the outcome of a meeting than anything else – it’s what people remember a week later!

An interesting story

A new five star hotel opened and was of course heavily booked by groups wanting to try it. They had so many complaints about the chairs that after only three weeks of opening, they replaced every chair in their meeting rooms. The exercise cost them thousands of dollars. I heard later that the decision about the chairs originally had been left to a junior person who had no understanding of the importance of the decision and clearly neither did the person who delegated the task.

Caution

Some people require an ergonomic chair for a back condition or similar ailment. I don’t know the legal situation with this as I am not a lawyer, but morally, I believe that you need to provide for such requests.

Since it is nearly always the minute taker who organises the room, this post has also been placed under the Minute Taking category.

I spoke to a psychologist about why this was the case and they told me that light has a very strong influence on people’s behaviour. Higher light lessens risk and makes people feel more comfortable in their behaviour. They are more likely to contribute.  Lower light of course, does the reverse. 

So always choose well lit rooms!

An interesting experience

I once was hired to conduct a session in  brand new 5 star hotel function room. When I arrived the lights were low and I asked them to be increased. I was told they were at the highest setting already – the architect had in his mind that function rooms are only used for cocktail parties – low light - when in fact 90% of their use is for business functions where light is required for people to read and write.

When the client arrived he called for the manager who explained the architect problem and that had complaints daily. My client was a strong person and the hotel ended up hiring commercial floodlights and plugging them into power points around the room so that people could see their papers. (I heard later that the architect was furious) After just a few months, the lighting was completely re-designed in all the function rooms by another architect because clients simply refused to pay for function rooms where they could not see!

Business Meeting Minutes – minutes for meetings in the workplace

The trend in business meetings is for minutes to be available within literally minutes of the meeting or, if not, hours. Same day is the general rule. The reason this is possible is that modern minute takers take the minutes directly onto a laptop computer and just email them as soon as the meeting closes.

The best minute takes have almost no editing to do after the meeting so this is perfectly possible. (For training in minute taking visit http://www.minutetaking.com)

Meetings in Volunteer Groups

As soon as you are dealing with volunteers it becomes more tricky because of the mere fact that they are volunteering their time. That said, the minutes are still one of the important working documents for any club or association. 

For a normal or general meeting, (as opposed to an annual general meeting or special general meeting – see below) the minutes should be out within a week of the meeting, ideally within 48 hours. Because many volunteers take the minutes longhand, it often takes them a long time to have the minutes ready for distribution. This is basically unacceptable in today’s world of computers. The research shows that in Europe, USA, Australia and New Zealand and most of Asia, 98% of homes have a computer and so I believe that it should not take more than a few days for the minutes to be prepared and emailed to everyone who should receive them.

Action

If the minutes contain action then they MUST be distributed within a few days of the meeting so that the action can begin. Some minute takers keep a separate document listing the action and this is a good practice. In this case the action list should be distributed immediately after the meeting, but smart minute takers send it with the minutes.

Minutes given out at the next meeting

Sometimes the minutes are given out at the next meeting. This means one of two things.

1. The minute taker has absolutely no understanding of the reason for minutes or,

2. The meetings are just “talk-fests” and nothing is ever decided or done.

So what do you do if you are in a group where the minutes are not sent out in time?

Try asking for them directly from the minute taker. If that does not work, ask the chair or the president if they can “hurry them up”. Thirdly, try moving at the next meeting that the minutes be distributed within 3 days of the meeting. If none of that works, get a new minute taker.

Minute takers sometimes use the delay in order to get some imaginary power. The best way to handle this is to change minute takers quickly.

AGM – Annual General Minutes. – see the blog post called Annual General Minutes under Minute Taking.

The minutes of the AGM are approved as an accurate record at the next AGM and this causes some confusion because some minute takers think therefore, that they do not have to distribute the minutes until then – a year later! This is incorrect.

Even though the minutes don’t get approved until the next AGM, they should still be distributed within a few days of the AGM of which they are the record. 

The reason is that the members of the organisation require the minutes to implement the decisions which were made and since decisions at AGM’s are nearly always major involving things like policy, fees, major projects etc, the minutes need to be in the hands of the members as quickly as possible.

There is another major reason and that is that the AGM minutes will contain (or should contain) the years financial report and all members  have the right to have a copy of the financial status of the organisation.

It is the case that the AGM minutes will probably need to be distributed just before the next AGM so that people have a copy to approve at the next AGM.

The next ordinary meeting approves the minutes of the last ordinary meeting, not the AGM, even though it may have been the most recent meeting.