Note Taking

Part 3: Note-taking at Meetings

Speed writing is particularly useful for taking notes at meetings. These may be personal notes as a participant or the formal Minutes of the meeting.

Personal note-taking at meetings will help you to concentrate on the issues discussed and will enable you to participate effectively.

The objective of taking notes at a meeting is to record the decisions made and any action to be taken.

It has been said that if deliberations are to be remembered, revised or acted on, they must first be recorded. Clearly recording notes merits attention for all meetings, whether one-to-one or group gatherings.

The Agenda paper given before the meeting commences provides the outline of topics to be discussed and therefore will be a list of the principal headings for your notes.

Focus always on each item in terms of the decisions made and any action to be taken. It is not necessary to record the detail of the discussion or to mention the names of who said what.

If you are acting as 'Minute Secretary' it is recommended that a full electronic recording of the proceedings is taken. This will be a valuable reference and help you to fill in any gaps in your notes.

You may find it helpful to prepare separate sheets headed for each item on the agenda for your notes. Where you are aware that specific motions are to be submitted at the meeting, it will help if each proposer writes the text of the motion for you before the meeting starts.

If you are a competent keyboarder you may find that taking notes directly on a laptop computer may be preferred. In this case you can use the T-Script Keyboard version. Because each letter-sound is created by a single key-stroke the contracted T-Script letters and vowel indicators are not used and the standard letter keys are substituted.