STEP 1: Prewriting—Planning for the Meeting
Before the meeting, you should complete two preliminary steps:
-^ Study the agenda, if there is one. The agenda [see agenda in the Glossary]
serves as a skeleton outline for your minutes.
-^ Prepare a list of the items to include in your minutes. Use the preceding list of
characteristics to develop your list, and allow enough room to take notes. In
some cases, a line will be ample, but for reports, unfinished business, and new
business, you may wish to allow a full page.
STEP 2: Prewriting—Taking Notes
Arrive early and seat yourself in the front of the room near the presiding officer.
Using your prepared list as a guide, take careful notes of everything that happens.
Strive for accuracy, asking as necessary for a motion to be repeated or for the names
of those who make and second motions.
To avoid inaccuracies, you may wish to read a motion aloud directly from your notes
just prior to the president’s asking for a second or just prior to the vote. This will give
everyone, including you, a chance to agree on wording and to understand the motion.
STEP 3: Writing—Preparing the First Draft
As soon after the meeting as possible, at least within the next day or two, write out
the minutes in rough draft. Waiting too long after the meeting will add to the diffi-
culty of maintaining accuracy:
-^ Your notes will get “cold,” and you may have trouble remembering what your
abbreviations mean.
-^ You may have trouble reading your own handwriting. Notes written in haste
sometimes become indecipherable after several days, simply because you
cannot remember the general context in which they were taken.
-^ Your recollection of specific details will fade with time.
So, even though you may not have to read the minutes for a month, prepare them as
soon as possible.
While the format for minutes is somewhat flexible, the organization is always the
same: chronological. [See chronological order in the Glossary.] Even if the order of
business [see order of business in the Glossary] varies from the agenda, you will record
the minutes as the events actually occurred. Normal order of business is as follows:
262 / Types of Writing