Minutes management
Introduction
The minutes of a meeting is the written document that records the topics discussed and the agreements adopted in a specific meeting "Meeting (organization)"), with the purpose of certifying what happened and validating what was agreed. The type of organizations that hold these meetings of which minutes will be drawn up can be very diverse, from a parliamentary assembly, a public or private institution, an association or a neighborhood community. All these meetings must have been duly convened, in writing and with adequate advance notice, through a document, addressed to all potential attendees, which will include the agenda for the meeting.
Although they can be independent documents, the minutes are almost always collected in a book of minutes, duly completed and whose pages are numbered.
There are certain meetings or other things whose minutes have a different and specific format, such as the minutes "Minutes (academic meeting)") that record the contributions made by the speakers") and speakers") in a scientific meeting"), or the documents "Minutes (document)") that certify certain data of interest that are made official in said meeting, such as the evaluation minutes, which are signed by all participants.
The minutes give an overview of the structure of the meeting, based on a list of attendees, a list of the various questions raised by the people calling the meeting (president, director) or by the participants, and each of their corresponding responses. The elements that appear in the minutes are above all the decisions and agreements adopted, such as appointments, dismissals, approval of financial statements, budgets or projects, modification of statutes, action plans, etc.[1].
Preparation of the minutes
During or after the meeting, the secretary takes note of the most important aspects to prepare the minutes and, generally, writes them up at the end of the meeting, or shortly after. Sometimes details are recorded using a tape recorder, or a shorthand expert.
In general, the minutes should not be too extensive, so they should focus on important issues (agreements) and are almost never verbatim minutes that include everything discussed. This does occur in some cases, such as the minutes corresponding to the debates of the parliamentary assemblies, which are called journal of sessions.