Tel: 01364 652845

 

Minute Taking

This one-day workshop will help you to ensure that the minutes or notes you take at meetings are clear, accurate and professional.

It will provide you with essential skills for each stage of the process: understanding the meeting, working with the chair, preparing the agenda, developing listening techniques, recording the meeting, distilling key points, and structuring and writing up the minutes.

Examples of good and bad minutes and agendas will help you to avoid common mistakes and follow best practice. Carefully designed exercises will enable you to develop your skills and confidence.

Our Desktop Guide to Note & Minute Writing will become a valuable reference book on your return to the office, where you will also benefit from a year of free support from your tutor.

The details


Course details

Summary

  • 1 day

  • 9.30 am–5.00 pm

  • Small groups

  • Certificates

  • A year of free support

  • £395.00 + VAT

  • A 20% discount is available to charities and local authorities

Book on-line

Course venues

View all course dates

"I found the course so helpful and informative. I came away with lots of great techniques and now feel much more confident at taking minutes."

Vasti Gregory
Office Manager
Universities South-West

 

Locations and dates

Course programme


Course programme

Morning session

  • Introduction

    • The purpose of notes or minutes

    • The role of the minute taker

    • The key skills of the minute taker

    • How to make sure the minutes are useful

  • Understanding the meeting

    • The different types of meeting

    • The purpose of the meeting

    • How the purpose affects the minutes

    • Differences between internal and external meetings

    • The terminology of meetings, agendas and minutes

  • Before the meeting

    • What type of notes or minutes?

    • What style of writing?

    • How much detail?

  • Working with the chair

    • The role of the chair

    • The relationship between the chair and the minute taker

  • Writing and using the agenda

    • Understanding the purpose of an agenda

    • How to lay out an agenda

    • Deciding on depth of detail

    • Clearing the agenda with the chair

    • When and how to distribute the agenda

  • Best practice in taking notes and minutes

    • Developing listening skills

    • Being selective and identifying key points

    • Sorting the information effectively

    • Using abbreviations

    • Asking for clarification

  • Exercises and feedback


 

Afternoon session

  • Writing up the notes or minutes

    • When to write the notes or minutes

    • Thinking about the needs of the readers

    • Structuring effectively

    • Formatting and following conventions

    • Summarising and paraphrasing

    • Using bullet lists

    • Making the action points clear

  • Developing the right tone and using professional language

    • What can go wrong

    • How to avoid the pitfalls

    • Using plain English

  • Overcoming the passive voice

    • The difference between active and passive

    • Why the active is usually best

    • When to use the passive

    • Practising turning passive into active

  • Avoiding common mistakes

    • Easily confused and misused words

    • Getting the grammar right

    • Punctuating minutes accurately

  • Conclusions

    • A review of key techniques and top tips

  • Exercises and feedback

How to book
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