Meeting Minutes

As a rule, the Meeting Minutes should be written in the past tense because you're describing events that happened in the past. The only exception is if you’re writing down notes about future plans and meetings. However, even if you choose to use the present tense for the Meeting Minutes, it’s important not to mix tenses to avoid confusion.

The two most important aspects of well-written Meeting Minutes are brevity and clarity. This is particularly the case when there’s a lot that you need to put down. Meeting Minutes ought to be easy to read. They should also always be objective and free of any personal observations. Also, if there's a need to reference other documents, it's best not to summarize them but point to where they can be found.

It will depend on the type of corporation and its resources. If there's a cloud-based storage account that you can use, that's always an option. But other online sharing and collaborative tools can also be used. Alternatively, sending a copy of Meeting Minutes to everyone via email is an acceptable practice.

As opposed to the time unit, the origin of the word is believed to be linked to the Latin “minuta scriptura," which translates to "rough notes" or "small writing."

It may seem like taking regular Meeting Minutes is tedious and time-consuming work. When in fact it’s designed to help the management to govern the corporation and also to save money. Maintaining the Meeting Minutes for all of a corporation’s formal meetings also means that everyone would know exactly what was decided without losing any important details.