Although, the minutes wizard looks straightforward and is very easy to use, it is probably still worth to
take a brief look at it and highlight some of the features that might be less obvious to our newer users.
The first time you start editing the minutes (‘Create minutes’ from an agenda), the wizard will
automatically create a final PDF version of the agenda. Documenting the final meeting agenda is a requirement for
many organizations. The agenda PDF will be saved to a default category ‘Meeting agendas’ for future
reference. At this stage of the cycle, you can no longer open the agenda wizard. The meeting is now in
‘Minutes’ mode.
The minutes wizard
While you are editing the minutes in draft mode (not published), members of the board or committee can
still only view the meeting agenda. Only users with 'edit' permissions can view the minutes at this stage.
Meeting info
The first step of the wizard saves some practical meeting information. The actual start and end time of the
meeting, who chaired the meeting and who recorded the minutes. If you would like to get accurate reporting
on how the board or committee is performing meeting-wise, it’s important to enter the correct times here
instead of accepting the default values.
On this page you can also go back and edit the original meeting description or location info and attach
additional meeting documents if required. If you created a meeting package for the meeting, you won’t be
able to change that, but you will be able to attach additional documents.
If you used the new ‘Video/teleconference info’ field in the agenda wizard and would like to see this
information repeated in the minutes, you need to enable this in the committee settings. By default, this
field will not show up here.
Attendance
This page allows you to quickly update the meeting attendance of members and guests. Members attendance is
automatically prefilled according to the member’s RSVP and in most cases just need a quick review and
confirmation.
For accurate reporting later, I again recommend reviewing and correctly updating the attendance
of members and guests.
You can still add last-minute invited guests to the meeting on this page.
Minutes
The minutes page is where you will spend most of your time editing minutes. All items are automatically
imported from the agenda and as you work your way through each item, there is an edit section on the right
side where you can enter the outcome of the discussion and the status of the item.
By default, items are automatically marked as ‘Completed’. If an item was not completed it must be deferred
or parked (=defer without due date).
When you defer or park an item, that item will automatically be added to the pending agenda item list. When
you schedule a future meeting, these pending items can easily be added to the agenda again as discussed in a
previous blog post.
If new items came up during the meeting, you can add them here by clicking the ‘+’ icon on the appropriate
section of the agenda.
Although not recommended, you can still make changes to the original agenda item (description, lead, etc.)
by clicking the little pencil icon next to the title. If an item was already deferred from a previous
meeting, you can easily review the history of this item (previous minutes) by clicking the 'Item history'
icon.
Action items vs. Tasks
Now might be a good time to look at the integration of action items and tasks in the Minutes Wizard and the
difference between them.
If during a meeting discussion, a decision was made that something should be done, either to complete the
agenda item or even something not directly related, an ‘Action item’ can be added as a sub-item to that
agenda item. The action item should be assigned to the person that is going to take the lead and will be
responsible for follow up. Typically, a due date should be agreed on and entered as well.
This action item will now show up in the pending agenda item list and can be added to a future meeting
easily for follow up. Action items are tracked agenda items used at the meeting level and the lead would
report back on the progress.
If you like more detailed tracking of the action item or if more than one person is involved in completing
the action item, you can attach one or more ‘Tasks’. A task describes a piece of discrete work that must be
accomplished by a single individual. Tasks created under an action item will show up in the member’s task
list and can be updated by each member separately to mark progress and completion. You can choose to show or
hide these individual tasks on the final minutes in the committee settings (Settings -> Minutes).
Action item with tasks
Tasks can of course be used outside of the meeting cycle as well to track progress of other board or
committee related work.
“In MyCommittee, Action Items are agenda items and track work at the meeting level while Tasks track work
at the people level.”
Optionally, you can show a summary of all action items and tasks at the bottom of the minutes. This can
again be enabled on the Minutes page in the settings area.
Action item summary
Publish
Like the agenda, the minutes need to be published before members have access. On the publish page you can
add a personal notification message and you can also re-send notifications to individual members in case
something went wrong.
Approval of the minutes
The minutes are the official written record of the meeting. After they are published, members can review
them and make sure that they reflect what happened in the meeting. Typically, one of the first items of
every meeting is to approve the minutes of the previous meeting. If there are errors or omissions, the
minutes can still be edited and published again with the required corrections.
Once all members approved the minutes, you can mark the minutes as 'Approved'. Technically not a part of
the minutes wizard, click on 'Approve minutes' on the minutes page to open the approval page.
Approve the final minutes
When you mark the minutes as approved, a final PDF version of the minutes is created automatically for your
records and added to a default category 'Meeting minutes'. From this moment on, edits to the minutes are no
longer possible. The only way to make corrections is by adding comments.
Approve for publication
While on the topic of approvals, just a quick note on another minutes approval page that is technically
part of the minutes wizard but doesn't show up by default.
When you want the chairperson to approve the meeting agenda or meeting minutes before each publication, you
can add an additional step to the wizard that enables an approval workflow to happen before publication.
Approve for publication
When the minutes editor clicks on 'Submit for approval', the chairperson(s) will receive a notification
email indicating that the minutes are waiting for their approval. The minutes cannot be published at this
time. The chairperson can then mark the minutes as 'Approved for publication' and the minutes can be
published.
Just to be clear, this process does not 'Approve' the minutes but only approves the publication of the
minutes. This allows the chairperson to quickly review the minutes before members have access.
As mentioned above, this feature is not enabled by default but can be switched on in the settings.
Go to 'Committee Settings' -> 'Workflow' to enable this for agendas, minutes or both and the extra
step will automatically show up in the wizard.
Summary
Recording accurate meeting minutes is not easy and the main goal of the wizard is to take care of the
most of the organizational work so you can focus on entering the key points of each discussion. The
wizard makes sure that you are not forgetting anything, and that all aspects of the meeting are
documented and clear.
Creating and publishing the meeting minutes does not just conclude a meeting but is part of a continuous
cycle that allows your board or committee to function and document progress towards its goals and
objectives.
Clear meeting minutes allow members to lookup what was discussed and
decided in the past and get better prepared for meetings in the future.
All meeting minutes are indexed and searchable forever.
Uncompleted agenda items are tracked and won’t get lost.
Action items and tasks encourage members to be productive in-between meetings.
