Has the world changed its mind on meeting minutes?
Anonymous
Following a meeting where our top five projects were discussed in moderate detail to assess their alignment to corporate strategic objectives, I prepared a summary of the discussions and the outcomes. I had two goals - to document the discussions and to provide the folks who were not present an opportunity to understand what happened.
I was a little surprised to receive a call from an executive assistant, who thanked me for the summary and then pointed out that there are legal issues with preparing detailed summaries of meetings. I asked what the legal issues were and she vaguely mentioned retention policies and such. My general approach to publishing anything is to first envision myself on a witness stand, reading my own words, so I was really not concerned about breaching any legal limits.
I freely admit that preparing meeting minutes is my LEAST favorite PM activity, but I feel they are invaluable and they need to be done within 1-2 days of the actual meeting. This is what I was taught in every PM class I've ever attended. PMI strongly endorses this as well (I'm a PMP).
What do you think about this? Do you prepare meeting minutes? Do you see value or risk in doing so? Saving Changes...
Minutes are only worth recording if there is a system in place where the people who need them can access them. Too often minutes end up in one person's file drawer and end up staying there. Saving Changes...
Professional organisations do not place important meeting minutes in ones draw - this is regarded an unstructured way and somewhat irresponsible behaviour. Minutes are usually sent to the staff that attended a specific meeting. Uploading minutes for general view is another topic that could be related to generic interests. Perhaps it is time to educate staff the importance of meeting minutes hence hiding them in the drawer.
It is common sense is it not !
Vasoula Saving Changes...
David MorganProject Manager| Experian PLCGrantham, United Kingdom
At my last company (have just started a new job, so I can't speak for this place yet), I found a couple of things - firstly, very few senior managers ever open attachments and secondly, long-winded accounts of who said what and when seemed to shroud the key points a little ("Oh, I didn't see that decision, was it imbedded in all the other stuff?"). As a result, I would - immediately following a meeting - send an email to all inetrested parties with two bullet pointed lists : one for 'Key Points/Decisions' and the other for 'Actions'. Generally speaking there would be four or five key points and a dozen or so actions, which would be allocated to their initials in brackets.
I found in doing this, it was far easier for the senior management to review the meeting notes whilst it was still fresh in their mind, and as we would review the action points at the next meeting, more people seemed to remember to 'print the last email' than dig around for attachements and end up having to print two or three pages.
It was a slick and speedy solution to the minute problem, is not going to misinterpret anyones actual words and as you (as scribe) are banging them into outlook as soon as the meeting finishes - makes the admin far easier.
Not sure the process in my new role, but as its an academia based place, may have a more long-winded approach to minutes. Time will tell Saving Changes...
Peter WrightProgramme Manager| BAE SystemsSouthport, Merseyside, United Kingdom
I have been in a business were they had identified the risk of meeting minutes with external clients. If a contract between you exists then meeting minutes can form part of the contract and can be seen as a commitment. Remember a contract can be made verbally, putting it in black and white makes that more formal and subsequently can carry greater risk.
All of this is only true if the minutes involve a non-company stakeholders. If they include these then you should scope the wording for outset of any meeting relevant to your location (e.g. US / UK). I have used on many occaisions with a contractor "Welcom to xxx meeting 1 this meeting is without commitment and predjudice and any commitment / approvals required will be taken as an action with the relevant authority" (e.g. commercial).
This should also then be captured in the minutes removing/reducing the legalness of them. Saving Changes...
Andrew MakarProgram Manager| AMAKAR LLCOakland Township, Mi, United States
I just replied to a thread similar to this one.
There are value in meeting minutes as long as they take the form of something everyone can use. That's why I like mind maps since they serve the purpose of notes and don't require reformatting. After a while, my users/stakeholders get used to the format and even like it better than the standard two-page word document.
As for record retention, this format needs to follow the same policy like any other electronic record based on the company's policy.
Old PM rule - if it is not documented it did not happen.
Meeting minutes are an important communication tool to ensure a common understanding by all the participants. Occassionally when reading feedback on the minutes you wonder whether the person was at the same meeting! This is important and so called legal issues should be secondary to having clear and open communications within your project. If a meeting involves external parties I circulate them internally for review first. Once the internal participants are happy that they represent what was discussed I then send them to the external parties. I have no problems with this approach.
It seems to me that if you are worried about the legal implications of your meeting minutes then your project is already in trouble!
My meeting minutes contain clear and separate sections to document decisions, actions and general meeting notes. This helps the general readability of the minutes. Saving Changes...
Elyse NielsenSenior Project Manager| Ascension Health Information ServicesHaines City, Fl, United States
Hi,
Meeting Minutes are a necessary evil to documenting decisions and team discussions. I would recommend continuing with the practice of taking minutes. Common Meeting Miinutes capture the following components:
Who was invited and attended
Summary of the discussions on agenda topics
Decisions Made
Action Items
Meeting minutes are a part of the documentation of the project not just for yourself, so it is good practice to write for the audience.
I've never come across anyone raising legal objections to meeting minutes before and personally find them invaluable as an audit trail as so often people will forget what has been agreed or will deliberately to pretend to do so to shirk responsibility.
Like many others in this thread, the key areas I tend to document are details of who was present, the key discussion points, any decisions and any resulting actions, together with the deadline for completion and the assigned owner.
In a project environment, all actions are then transferred to a centralised action log so that they can be more easily tracked through to resolution.
I also make use of a decisions log that I rarely see others tend to use. This takes the key decisions made in a meeting, notes the date of the meeting, the type of meeting (e.g. conference, call, F2F etc), who was present when the decision was made and what the final decision was. This can also be used for decisions which remain pending after the meeting and which need to be tracked through to agreement.
This has proven invaluable when key stakeholders have forgotten what they had previously agreed or claimed not to have been present at a meeting where something had been discussed and you can use the log and supporting minutes (easily identifiable as you noted the date in the log) as a reminder.
It also allows those not present at meetings to review what has been decided.
I tend to also make use of the log for ad-hoc phone calls and emails where decisions are made / agreement reached so that it is all stored in one place.
Saving Changes...
Rakesh TrivediSenior Project Manager| IT CompanyIndore, Mp, India
Your executive message is weird , MOM are the best way to keep everyone aware of meeting updates and setting agenda for next meet so just ignore that person although within legal limits :-) Saving Changes...
"Humanity has advanced, when it has advanced, not because it has been sober, responsible and cautious, but because it has been playful, rebellious and immature."
