Book Review: Successful Minute Taking
I knew of the author, Heather Baker, from her SpeedWriting book and thought her book on how to do minutes would be good. It is.
The book is aimed at secretaries and PA’s but, like other small business owners, I do most of my own administration and the buck stops with me. Minutes can be legal documents so I was a bit worried about doing them properly for our tiny Annual General Meeting and occasional meetings with other companies.
The book was ideal, explaining the different types of meetings, what they are for and how they should be run. It made me realise that I actually attend more meetings than I had thought – chats with marketeers, meetings with clients and suppliers, etc. Good notes are invaluable in getting people to take action and making the meetings worth having!
There are some excellent short tips in the book which I found very useful, such as deciding on some useful abbreviations beforehand, to save lots of writing; and writing/typing up the notes as quickly as possible after the meeting. There is even a section on how to be more confident when taking minutes.
The book has some really handy links to real meetings online so you can practice in a semi-live situation. Other unexpected (to me) bonuses are:
A superb (and short!) section on spelling and grammar, including a list of the most commonly misspelled words used in meeting notes (yes, I was guilty – independent, not independant!)
A list of words that could be used in minutes – a brilliant idea. I was concerned about writing, “said” too much and was delighted to find a list of alternatives: stated, reported, confirmed, verified, pointed out, etc.
I not only produce minutes of our own AGM’s now, but am careful to document other meetings in order to make the most of my attendance at them and prompt other attendees to follow-up on suggestions and action points.
I would certainly recommend this book for anyone who needs to take minutes and highly recommend it for secretaries and PA’s who would like to add minute-taking to their list of skills.
The book comes in 2 formats – the book:
The book with downloadable workbook:
Both books are available in paperback format from Amazon.
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