Minute Taking (Half Day)

‍Course Code: MINUTE

Duration: Half Day

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COURSE AIMS:

Essential skills for making meetings work.

Good minute-takers are worth their weight in gold. Minute-takers can do more than record the outcomes of meetings concisely; they can also help the chairperson run the meeting more effectively.

COURSE PRE-REQUISITES:

This programme is for you if you are, or plan to be, responsible for recording minutes of meetings and noting important action points as part of your role.  You will be brought up to date with the latest thinking on meeting records and all the practical skills of minute-taking. A key message is that minute taking can only be effective as part of the wider process of meeting administration. Minutes should be brief, but how should they look? Examples in a range of formats will be used, and participants can take away ideas for improving the quality of their own work.

COURSE OBJECTIVES:

On completion of this course delegates will be able to:

• Apply effective preparation techniques
• Record key points in a concise and effective format
• Clarify meeting objectives and create a table of action points
• Edit minutes for maximum clarity
• Format minutes usefully

COURSE CONTENT:

Introduction and Objectives

Helping to Make Meetings Work

• What are minutes for
• Purpose of meetings
• Types of meetings
• Benefits of good minute taking

Preparation and Planning

• Writing styles
• What to avoid

Roles in a Meeting

• Clarifying meeting objectives

What is an Agenda?

• How to construct an agenda
• Using the agenda as an agent of control
• Keeping up

Active Listening Skills

• How to Intervene

Note-taking Formats

• What to note down
• Taking minutes
• How to create a table of actions
• Styles of minute taking
• Editing the minutes

Key Words

• What was agreed?
• Action to be taken following the meeting

Feedback, Summarising and Closing

• Content bullet points
• Proof reading
• Final presentation
• Minute taking practice:  the opportunity to take the minutes of a meeting
• Rewriting badly written minutes

Action planning

Review of Programme

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