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...
