Should minutes be recorded verbatim (word-for-word)?

Two important principles for minutes are objectivity and action-orientation. Minutes are an official summary of what took place in a meeting, focusing primarily on what was DONE by the group (an objective focus) and not what was said or done by each member. If it is desired to capture the essence of the discussion, this should be done in a concise point-form summary and without recording “who said what”.

Here is the dilemma you may face: How do you persuade your Board, Council or Committee to stop demanding verbatim minutes, when some members are accustomed to having such minutes? (They've done it this way for years, and some of them are very outspoken and stubborn). You need a few compelling points in order to make the case against verbatim minutes. Here are five such points:

• First, verbatim minutes are too long and tedious to read. Because of this, members of the group tend to file such minutes away and ignore what they contain (except, perhaps, for “nit-pickers” or individuals who have a lot of spare time). One outcome of this may be that no one will notice that the minutes contain significant inaccuracies and misrepresentations. In addition, verbatim minutes are not useful as a follow-up tool (action items are “buried” in plenty of irrelevant data).

• Second, verbatim minutes are too personal. Recording “who said what” can lead to embarrassing arguments when approving the minutes. “I did not say this…”, “Yes you did, and I can prove it. Let's listen to the tape…”, “But I didn't mean to say this… My intent was completely different…”. To top it off, this insane discussion is entered in the minutes of the next meeting. What a waste...

• Third, a requirement to take verbatim minutes means that your administrative assistant must either take courses in short-hand or tape the meeting, and may need plenty of time (ranging from one day to a week) to prepare the minutes. This is clearly not a good investment of talent, especially when there are so many other beneficial tasks that the administrative assistant could complete for your group.

• Fourth, verbatim minutes can become a disincentive to participating freely and spontaneously in discussions. Members become guarded about what they say, for fear of how they might be recorded in the minutes (especially when minutes are public documents, accessible under free-of-information legislation). This “stifling effect” can have a negative impact on the quality of the discussions and the decisions made by the group. Surely you will agree that your organization deserves better…

• Fifth, for the environmentally-conscious, verbatim minutes are a colossal waste of resources: How many trees could be saved by using less paper for minutes?

With the above arguments, it should not be difficult to persuade your group to let go of past traditions that don't work, and trade those wasteful verbatim minutes for concise, brief, objective and action-oriented minutes. Good luck !!

Eli Mina is a professional meeting chairman, Registered Parliamentarian, seminar leader, and a leading expert on meetings and rules of order. He specializes in chairing contentious meetings, demystifying and humanizing the rules of order, resolving organizational disputes, and shared decision making. Further explore Eli's website for more details on Eli's work and his books. To sign up for his free e-mail newsletter, click here.