Implementing best practice with mycommittee
3. Creating the minutes
Whether you create the minutes real time during the meeting or at your desk afterwards, the method stays the same. Whenever you are ready click on 'Create Minutes' on the meetings or agenda page. The minutes wizard will open and you will notice again that most of the general information is entered already so you simply need to verify this and make changes only where necessary.
Make sure to enter the correct meeting start/end times and member attendance as you start to build statistical information that will be very useful when you do a committee review later. (You can view your meetings statistics in the tools section)
If you took good notes during the meeting, entering the minutes should be very easy and fast. On the minutes page in the wizard you can enter or update the key notes of the meeting for each item on the agenda. When you create the minutes, all items are marked 'completed' automatically because that will usually be the status for most items after the meeting. The description box can be updated accordingly and that is all you need to do.
The next sections will explain most common other cases:
An item was not completed during the meeting
When an item was not completed you have a few options:
- Defer the item to a future meeting (select 'next meeting' or any other date)
- Park the item (defer without a due date)
In both cases the item will show up as 'old business' in the agenda wizard when you create your next meeting agenda but only in case the item was deferred and the due date has passed, it will be checked and included on the agenda. (you can always manually change the selection).
An item cannot be completed
If for whatever reason an item cannot be completed (the context has changed, the item was deferred too long and is now obsolete, etc.) best practice indicates that instead of deleting, the item will be marked 'completed' (so it will no longer show up as old business in the agenda wizard) and in the minutes box, the reason will be documented for future reference. (You can 'search' your old minutes with MyCommittee)
A 'new' item came up during the meeting
If a new business item came up during the meeting (shouldn't happen but nobody is perfect...) you can simply add a new item to the minutes and complete all details.
An 'action item' was identified during the meeting
If an action item was identified you can add a sub-item (choose type: action item) to the item in question and complete the details (description, assigned to and due date).
If the action item has a future due date, MyCommittee will automatically create a corresponding task for the assigned member. Add a separate sub-item for each action item identified (don't combine them on one sub-item to save time!)
You can defer the action item to a future meeting.
What's the difference between the 'due date' and the 'defer date' of an action item?
In many cases they will be the same but if you add an action item that will take a long time to complete (E.g. a few months) you might want to put the item on the agenda again before the due date to provide a status update.
The defer date is when you (the chair) would like to see the item on the agenda again, the due date is the date you agreed with the assigned member during the meeting the task should be completed.
What's the difference between an action item and a task?
For MyCommittee, an action item is an agenda item and can as such be completed, deferred or parked. It only appears on the agenda or meeting minutes and can only be updated by members that can creates agendas or minutes. It's like a placeholder for the corresponding task.
A task is the activity that needs to be accomplished. It's the assignment agreed upon during the meeting and has a start and due date. The task can be seen by all committee members on the 'tasks' page but only updated by the assignee. MyCommittee will update the corresponding action item automatically whenever the task is updated.
Distribute the minutes
After all information is entered you can send an email to all members to notify them that the meeting minutes are available. Click on the distribute tab in the minutes wizard to do this.
Remember that the minutes should be distributed as soon as possible after the meeting while everything is still fresh in memory. Members can mark the minutes as read and can add comments and personal notes on the minutes page directly.
You're done again! It probably took more time to read this section than it will take to create your next minutes!