How to Take Minutes at Board Meetings

At meetings of the management team, important decisions are often made that affect the work of the entire organization. The minutes of the board meeting are an official document that reflects the proceedings of the organization’s management meeting and the decisions made as a result of it.

General Principles of Logging

The Protocol is a fairly common document. With the help of the protocol, various interrogations, meetings, official events, meetings, incidents, etc. are recorded.

The log can either be detailed, containing a verbatim record of what happens in the process (shorthand), or abbreviated, in which only important events and decisions are made.

Each protocol fulfills two functions:

First, it reflects the course of the meeting or meeting (meeting);

Second, the protocol is a document that certifies the fact that certain decisions are made (e.g. formation of a limited liability company, downsizing, introduction of a new staff position, etc.).

The date and agenda of the meeting are fixed in advance. For this purpose, an administrative document can be issued to the organization.

The course of the meeting can be recorded in writing as well as with the help of a video or audio recording. In this case, as a rule, abridged minutes are drawn up, in which only the items on the agenda and the resolution made as a result of the discussion are recorded. In this case, the log contains the details of the audio or video file from which the decryption was performed.

How the Log Is Created

Each minute has several mandatory sections, but additional items can be added for the needs of a specific meeting. There is no legally prescribed form for the minutes of the board meeting. An organization can develop and use its own protocol template.

On our website you can download a standard form of the protocol, which can be adapted to your needs.In order for the minutes of the board meeting to be legally valid, they must contain the following mandatory information:

“Cap”. The “header” of the minutes indicates the place and date of its creation (sometimes the time when the meeting began).

Below, under the heading, is the name of the document: “Minutes of Board Meeting (name of organization) No. …”.

Below the title is the composition of the meeting participants, beginning with the chairman and ending with the secretary. If persons invited from the organization and external guests take part in the meeting, these will also be included in the minutes. If someone from the obligatory composition of participants was absent, this is also noted: “Linda Colins absent due to…”

The next section of the minutes is the agenda. The agenda of the meeting usually includes several items and is negotiated before the meeting, i.e. entered in the minutes before the meeting.

Depending on whether the minutes are full or abridged, the minutes of the debate on each item on the agenda may contain verbatim all statements made by the meeting participants on the subject, or only the results. An interim conclusion can be drawn for each item on the agenda after discussion in the minutes. If the discussion was accompanied by a vote, the minutes contain the total number of those who took part in the vote, the number of those who spoke “for”, “against” and the number of abstentions.

If additional issues were raised at the meeting, these are also recorded in the minutes, indicating the decisions made on those issues.

Results of the meeting. This section contains a description of the decisions made at the meeting and is usually presented in the form of a list. For example, “It was decided on item 1 of the agenda”, “It was decided on item 2 of the agenda” and so on.

signatures. The minutes are usually signed by the President and the Secretary of the Board of Directors, but one signature is sufficient.

 

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