MINTUTES OF THE MEETING

Minutes of the meeting

Preparing Minutes of Meeting

In a typical business, many committees and task forces operate within the company. The purpose of committees is to discuss various problems and to make recommendations to management. A standing committee is one that operates permanently year after year, although its members may change. A task force is a group of people who are appointed to solve a specific problem; when they make their recommendation on the ‘task’ assigned to them, the task force is disbanded. Each department may have several committees that meet periodically – usually once a week, every two weeks, or monthly. For example, if you are working in a sales department, there may be committees on advertising, sales conferences, commissions, product development, public relations, and so on.

A meeting has been called….

Statutory	….. because the law demands it	… shareholders’, creditors’, directors’, councillors’ meetings
Managerial	…. To progress company affairs	to inform of policy, to brief, to delegate tasks, to discuss problems, to reach group decisions, etc
Creative	…. to generate ideas, to open up new possibilities or avenues of action	to ‘brainstorm’ around the idea of what the firm could design, manufacture; to produce an advertising slogan, poster, etc.
Negotiating	…. to reach a solution to a problem acceptable to two sides with different interests	management and trade union to agree  upon pay increase/rise
General/ public	…. to report back to a group membership, or to air matters of public interest (members & roles)	Annual General Meeting of shareholders or club membership meeting; public enquiries into planning proposals

Members of Meetings & their role

Committee Members’ Roles

•        The Chairman’s Role: to coordinate the work of the committee…leader, guide, umpire.

•        The Secretary’s Role: to carry out the administrative work of the committee… organizer, chairman’s right hand.

•        The Treasurer’s Role: to monitor the committee’s financial activities.

•        The Committee Member’s Role: To participate at meetings and do work delegated to him or her.

Special terms for meetings

•        Ad hoc: for the particular purpose of

•        Advisory: submitting suggestions or advice to a person or body entitled to carry out decisions and actions.

•        Agenda: a ‘timetable’ listing items for discussion at a meeting

•        AGM: Annual General Meeting

•        Apologies: for absence written or orally delivered excuse for not being able to attend a meeting

•        Chairman: coordinator of a committee, working party, etc.

•        Chairman's agenda: like to ordinary agenda but containing additional information for guidance

•        Executive: having power to act upon and carry out decisions

•        Ex officio: by reason of an existing office or post

•        Honorary: performing a duty without payment

•        Minutes: written summary of a meeting’s business

•        Motion: a topic formally introduced for discussion

•        Nem con: no one disagreeing

•        Opposer: one who speaks against

•        Other business: items discussed outside main business of meeting

•        Proposer: one who speaks in favour of a motion

•        Resolution: a decision reached after a vote at formal meetings – a motion successfully introduced

•        Secretary: committee administrator

•        Sine die: indefinitely

•        Standing committee: one which has an indefinite term of office

•        Treasurer: financial guardian

•        Unanimous: all of like mind

Minutes of Informal Meeting

The written record of the proceedings of a meeting is called the minutes of the meeting. Since most meetings in business are informal (that is, do not follow the rules of parliamentary procedure), the minutes are also informal. The minutes usually include the date, time, and place of the meeting; the name of the presiding officer; a list of those present (and frequently those absent); and the time of adjournment. Discussions are usually summarized.

Usually the minutes are signed by the person who took them and sometimes by the presiding officer as well. Minutes are usually duplicated, and copies are sent to each person present at the meeting and to other designated officials. Lets look at the minutes of a meeting.

Presiding:        Naeem Ahmad, President

Present:           Ahmad Ali,  Muhammad Aleem , Sara Zaman, Yousif Habib

 

Absent:            Munir Ahmad ,Muhammad Asif ,Tariq Nazir

 

After calling the meeting to order at 3:15 pm, the president asked the treasurer for a brief report....

 

The president asked Sara Zaman, chairperson of the investment committee, for the committee recommendation….

The president asked Ahmad Ali of Lauder, Bennet, and Laser, the club’s broker, to comment….

Mr Habib announced that the club’s annual picnic is scheduled for Saturday, Sept 14, at Al-Hamra Hall in Lahore……

The meeting was adjourned at 5:30 pm

Respectfully submitted

 

Hassan

            Secretary

Minutes of Formal Meetings

Minutes of meetings that follow parliamentary procedure are somewhat different in form from the informal minutes illustrated here. Formal minutes do not include discussions. Only motions, resolutions, committee assignments and reports, and other specific accomplishments are included.  Topical headings are used for easy reference and how the recorder has briefly summarized a speaker’s remarks. Also note that motions should be worded specifically followed by the name of the person who made the motion and the name of the one who seconded.

Resolutions to express sympathy, appreciation, congratulations, and the like are often passed at formal meetings.

The paragraphs giving the reasons for the resolution are introduced by the word WHEREAS (followed by a comma) and  the paragraphs stating the action to be taken are introduced by the word RESOLVED (also followed by a comma).

Time & Place: The regular monthly meeting of the Historical-Commercial Club of Lahore was called by the president, Naeem Ahmad, on Friday, February 8, 2006, at 2 pm in the Jinnah room of the Plaza Hotel.

Minutes		The minutes of the last meeting were read and approved.
Treasurer’s report		The following report was given by Fatima Hanif, the treasurer:
Balance on hand, Jan 1, 2006		Rs. 23720.90 18160.50
Total Paid out in January                             Balance		41881.40 8500.00  ---------------- 33381.4
The treasurer’s report was accepted.
Old Business	It was moved, seconded, and voted that a booklet describing local commercial site of historic interest be written and published by the club and distributed to local schools.
New Business	After a discussion about improving the club’s ability to advise the local media about its activities, a committee consisting of Fatima Hanif, chairperson; Sara Ahmad,  Iqbal was appointed to report the next meeting.
Program	Naeem Ahmad introduced Ms Munir, an archaeologist at City University……
The meeting was adjourned at 4:15 pm Respectfully submitted Zaheer Secretary(producing minutes)

Producing the Minutes

Resolution minutes

Some types of meeting – for example those of boards of directors – record only the decision reached, usually after a vote. The arguments, initial disagreements or conflicting views remain unwritten or unrecorded. Thus a lengthy discussion on the pros and cons of keeping a barely profitable branch store open may be summarized as:

5 Liberty Branch

It was resolved that the company’s liberty branch be closed with effect from 31 May 2006 and the premises, fixtures and fittings offered for sale

Such minutes usually include the word ‘resolved’ and may indicate the pattern of voting. Otherwise, the items, ‘Apologies for Absence’, ‘Minutes of the Last Meeting’, ‘Matters Arising’ and ‘Date of Next Meeting’ follow the pattern of narrative minutes. Note that in some formal meetings, the ‘Matters Arising’ and ‘Any Other Business’ items are not included, as a tighter rein is kept on what may be discussed.

Narrative Minutes (fuller picture & view)

Sometimes referred to as minutes of narration, narrative minutes tell more of the ‘story’ of what happened and who said what at a meeting. The main points of the background and discussion leading to a decision are recorded, and so anyone reading such minutes will gain a much fuller picture of a committee’s work and views.

Narrative minutes are recorded in reported speech and instead of giving direct speech we use indirect speech. This simply involves referring to committee members in the third person – either by their office – ‘The chairman said....’ or by name, ‘Mr. Naeem asked whether ….’ When decisions are reached by a vote, expressions such as, ‘it was generally agreed that….’ ‘It was therefore decided that….’ are used to introduce the details of the decision. Further, to keep the record objective and neutral, the passive is often used: ‘The secretary was asked to write to the Council to…..’

Care regarding narration

Care must be taken when recording narrative minutes that verb tenses are appropriate and that the time interval between the actual discussion at the meeting and the later recording of the minutes does not lead to confusion:

He said he would contact the suppliers next week.

At the time this statement was made, ‘next week’ was true, but if the minutes were distributed and read a fortnight after the meeting took place, it would no longer be true; this expression like ‘the following week’ is more accurate.

Action Minutes

Busy committees sometimes like to introduce a right hand blank column beside the minutes in order to put a designated committee member’s name against a particular task to be carried out:

           

            6 Annual  games

            The secretary was asked to seek approval to use the company sports Ground again.

            Action by:        Secretary

Some rules of indirect speech

‘I’m sorry I’m late. I missed the bus.’ DIRECT SPEECH

He said that he was sorry he was late. He had missed the bus. REPORTED SPEECH VERSION.

 

He apologized for being late. He had missed the bus.

Some rules

Rule one: persons/pronouns

            I

            he, she

            you

            we

 

            they

 

            you (pl)

Rule two: the tenses of verbs  

Rule three: the distancing effect

Today-that day, now-then, here-there, this-that, these-those, tomorrow-the next/ following day, yesterday-the previous day

Rule four: conveying the tone of the direct speech

If the reported speech writer is not very careful, the reporting may easily slip into a dull ‘he said, she said, he said, she said’, so it is important to vary the words that introduce the reported speech:

Asked that, wondered whether, strongly denied that, confirmed that, suggested that, suggested that, etc.