Minute Taking

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Why Minute Taking Training?
Many people struggle with minute taking simply because they have not been given the tools and confidence to do it. And yet, there is often pressure on the minute-taker to get it right - to produce a clear and concise document that serves as an official record. By developing a set of specific skills to take brief but accurate notes and to produce a document that is 'fit for purpose', even an inexperienced minute-taker can quickly reduce the amount of time and energy that minutes often take up - freeing them to focus on other, perhaps more important/pressing tasks.

Individuals wishing to improve their minute taking skills are often interested in finding ways to:

Enhance their confidence to create effective written documents that need little or no editing by a 3rd party

Avoid trying to write down everything that is said in a meeting

Accurately record complex issues and discussions - even when people are talking over each other

Stay focused and interested, even when they are not familiar with the topic or the jargon

Determine what is relevant, what is not, and what they should/should not be writing down

Contribute to, or chair the meeting whilst taking on the role of minute-taker

Reduce the amount of time taken to type up minutes from pages of notes

Although many novice minute takers are given the advice to just write down as much as possible, or to copy the style of the minutes that the previous person produced, this is not always helpful. Attempting to take verbatim minutes at a meeting full of unfamiliar people discussing an unfamiliar topic can be very daunting. Learning some simple techniques, including effective preparation and focused note taking will make the whole task a lot less challenging, and will help the minute taker to produce more useful documentation that the meeting participants will actually want to read!

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"I don't understand... Why are they called 'minutes' if they take hours to produce?!"

Unknown

Click the 'play' button below to see a short video illustrating how verbatim notes need not be a necessity:

How to spot high quality minutes
The minutes are...

1. Clear and concise - they focus on key points

2. Unambiguous - with a clearly defined meaning, eliminating doubt and/or misunderstanding

3. Accurate - providing an accurate representation of important information, decisions and action points

4. Written in Plain English - a style that readers can understand in one reading. Using only as many words as are necessary, concentrating on the message instead of complicated language

5. Well organized - the structure is logical and enhances comprehension and ease of reading

6. Easy to navigate - the layout, structure and typeface enable quick and easy reading of essential information

7. Reader focussed - conveying a specific message to a specific audience, taking into account their needs, interests and expectations

And most importantly... high quality minutes fulfil their key objectives

Minute Taking Training

Would you or others in your team benefit from training in 'Minute Taking'?

As well as the information and advice availble from the internet and from reading books, there's huge additional benefit to be gained from the interaction, practical exercises and valuable feedback that face-to-face training and coaching gives. In relation to the topic of minute taking H2 offers:

Communication and Relationship Management Training

Held in Central London in convenient locations on a regular basis - a place costs from just £270 +VAT per person for a 1-day course. We currently offer the following open course specifically on this topic:

Minute Taking (1-day course)

We can deliver any of our open course topics at your own premises or at a local venue of your choice, plus we offer a number of other off-the-shelf courses that can be delivered in-house, including:

Minute Taking
Note Taking
Meeting Skills
Chairing Effective Meetings

We charge a flat daily fee from £800 +VAT per day (from £700 +VAT for not-for profit organisations), for any number of attendees up to 12 people, dependent only on the location and the duration of the course. Click on the "In-house Courses" button above for more details.

Our bespoke service involves us designing and delivering a tailored course to meet your more individual requirements. Following a short but effective pre-course consultation, we put together a course programme that reflects your specified priorities, and that includes exercises based on real-life case studies/scenarios. This helps us to ensure that the course stays focussed on the issues that are most important to you and your delegates. Click on the "Bespoke Training" button above for more details.

We offer all of our open course and in-house topics as 1:1 training. The cost is dependent upon the topic, location and duration and we offer discounts for two or more sessions. For example, the fees for our standard 1:1 training in Central London covering an open course topic (such as "Minute Taking") are £550 +VAT. Click on the "One-to-One Training" button above for more details.