Bill McQueenEng Project Manager| NanometricsYork, North Yorkshire, United Kingdom
Hi,
I've worked on many projects in the past and had varying degrees of success when distributing and racking meeting minutes. The main methods used that I have been exposed to are:
Email minutes
Word minutes
Excel minutes.
And to track open issues, I have seen a number system and a date system to reference issue initiation.
What are other PMs using to distubute and track minutes. Does anyone have a recommended template?
Any comments greatly appreciated! Saving Changes...
I like putting them in-line in e-mails. The minutes can go out to everyone, and they do not need to double-click on any attachment to see them. I put the key issues and decisions at the top, and hopefully even a casual reader will scan through those.
I also keep an archive copy of the minutes in my own files. Often these are a TXT or PDF copy of the e-mail. These are kept in the project file folder, too. When I finish the project, these go in the final archive. Saving Changes...
Hans RobbersSenior Director| SalesforceVlissingen, Netherlands
Hi
Most of the times I use e-mail or Word. As Axel is saying A copy will be stored in the project folder and where possible I use a team room. Sending a mail with the main topics and a link to thte team room folder where they can read the full list. The MoM contain agenda. approval of previous minutes and decisions made in the meeting.
For actions and issues I excel since this offers me the auto filter option. In this way it is easy for everybody to track open issues/actions assiged to them. Again preferable in a team room and the link in an e-mail. If there is no team room the excel spreadsheet is on the project drive. The excel spread is a shared document and is back upped on a daily basis
Saving Changes...
Bill McQueenEng Project Manager| NanometricsYork, North Yorkshire, United Kingdom
Hi,
Thanks for your comments, it re-assures me that email and excel are still the current tools for meeting minutes.
Hans, I was interested to know how you numbered or referenced new issues on the excel spreadsheet. Do you use a date coding?
I move closed actions and issues to a 'Closed' worksheet leaving only the active items present where its possible to create numbering confusion unless I use a date stamp.
I also create a 'Parking lot' worksheet for those items that are raised which may be considered in the future.
Saving Changes...
Hans RobbersSenior Director| SalesforceVlissingen, Netherlands
I keep all issues in one worksheet. The number is a sequence number using the excel formula previous cell plus 1. Open, assgned, closed, potential and other ones are status I create in a separate column with selection of the values see attached file. You can apply identical validation for sub project or area of work and for names who raised the issue and have been assigned to it
Autofilter helps you to select your issues or thos of a certain status.
As soon as the status Close is selected the line greys out. Feel free to use it and play with it
regards Hans Saving Changes...
Hans RobbersSenior Director| SalesforceVlissingen, Netherlands
Sorry I attached an old version of the Issue register. Please find attached the most recent one Saving Changes...
Anonymous
We use project repositories - Team Rooms. This allows for subscription service to the stakeholders which also provides the interactive portion of communications. Forms are also interactive such as project statuses, issue management, etc. Everything is in once place for a specific project allowing each member secure access to what they specifically need. Saving Changes...
Bill McQueenEng Project Manager| NanometricsYork, North Yorkshire, United Kingdom
Hans,
Thanks for sharing the template. The drop down menu with the 'closed' selection greying out the line is a nice touch.
Team rooms have been mentioned a couple of times now. I use a folder created on one of the company servers as a project respository for all project documentation. This has group access restrictions set so that only members of the project team can access.
Regards,
Bill
Saving Changes...
Megan SmootSr. Project Specialist - EPMO| Allegacy Federal Credit UnionWinston Salem, Nc, United States
I use a couple methods to house documentation, including meeting minutes. One is on Sharepoint and the Other is a Shared/Network Drive. Currently I have minutes housed on our project team's sharepoint website and will send out an email once a week to interested parties (Project Team/Steering Committee/Sr. Mgmt./etc.) with a link back to the Sharepoint site. Hope that helps!
...
1 reply by Carlos Medina
May 28, 2019 1:20 PM
Carlos Medina
...
Hi Megan, can you tell me how do you use the sharepoint? as a Document vault or you create lists for action items? Can you please let me know which is your best practice.
Thanks in advance
Saving Changes...
Jayson ReadProject ManagerEden Prairie, Mn, United States
If you have it available, I'd give MS OneNote a spin. It integrates with Outlook and allows you to "attach" meetings and emails to a sort of binder.
Worksheets are always great for the tracking and assignments of issues during the project. As Hans mentions, it allows you to auto filter, sort, create macros, etc. Saving Changes...
Gilbert AndersonSoftware Director| Williams InternationalMadison, Al, United States
I send out an email and then archive the minutes in the project meeting minutes folder of a shared network drive (most people only have read access).
At my previous company, the project folder was online so the minutes were links in the project meeting minutes page. I like this better. Since the email notification of the meeting minutes only contained a link, email sizes were smaller also. Similar to Alex, key decisions and outcomes were spiked out in the email notification. Saving Changes...
