Meeeting Minutes! A Living Document?

James · #1 03-17-2002, 02:21 PM

First of all, if your chapter, does not put out minutes within a day or two of the last meeting there is something seriously wrong with you.

Minutes are not only a record of what happened in a meeting but a great tool to keep everyone on the same page.

Making your Minutes into a Living Document:

Pre-minutes

Most of the better organized chapters meet at the beginning of each semester to establish what the chapter will be doing for the following semester.

Sometimes its not exact, but even if the exact event is not known, dates are set aside for something.

You want your minutes to reflect your progress in completeing events and projects as well as tracking the future ones. And you want that update every week. By the time the third week rolls around EVERYONE will know which dates are important.

So your minutes should be divided into four sections:
[list=1][*]Events completed[*]Events Planned[*]Events in Planning[*]Meeting Report[/list=1]

*Notes for above: Every event should have the name of a lead person on it (even if its a committe) so the chapter knows who to praise (or blame).

*Every event, even the ones in planning should have a date on them! That puts presure on the chapter members to make it happen, and it makes it more real in people's minds.

James · #2 03-17-2002, 02:46 PM

Chapter Sample Minutes

Date: 3/17/02
Weeks Remaining: 8

Section I. Events Completed

2/01/02 Graffiti Mixer with DZ (Collin)
2/08/02 Beef and Beer Fund Raiser (Rob)
2/15/02 PaintPellet Wars vs. TKE (Jeff)
3/02/02 Tahiti Formal (Bill)

Section II. Events Planned

3/19/02 Beach Volleyball with AGD (Collin)
3/22/03 Greek Week (James)
3/29/02 Movie Night with ZTA (Rob)
4/05/02 Talent Show Fundraiser (Brad)
4/07/02 Elections
4/21/02 Margarittaville Semi-Formal (James)

Section III. Events in Planning

4/01/02 Mixer Chi Omega(Rob)
4/12/02 Brotherhood event(Collin)
4/15/02 Late night Study Breakfast(Jeff)

Section IV.

Opening
Officer Reports
Committee Reports
Old Business
New Business
Good of the Order
Closing

Peaches-n-Cream · #3 03-17-2002, 03:14 PM

James, is everyone from GC invited to the Margaritaville Semi-Formal? I would really like to see what happens at a Margaritaville Semi!

James · #4 03-17-2002, 04:08 PM

*sigh* Try and post something serious on GC and you can't even get a constructive response . . .

But yes Cream, you are more than welcome to come to our Margarittaville Mixer, it should be an experience.

Quote:

Originally posted by Cream
James, is everyone from GC invited to the Margaritaville Semi-Formal? I would really like to see what happens at a Margaritaville Semi!

TechAPhi · #5 03-17-2002, 04:34 PM

Hi James,

Excellent post. Our chapter has had "challenges" in getting our minutes out in a timely fashion. Your tips are great and I will be passing the text of your post along to the chapter. Well done!

Jen

SoCalGirl · #6 03-17-2002, 10:02 PM

Our meetings are structured a very specific way that actually makes the minutes super easy to organize. Unfortunately, I can't say what the structure is. But, make sure meetings are conducted in the same order every time and everyone will appreciate it!

I know our secretary always would go home after meeting, type it up on the p/c and email it to all members and advisors w/in an hour. That way every member knows what's going on even if they missed meeting for some reason.

RUgreek · #7 03-22-2002, 01:35 AM

In our house, if you don't come to the meetings and don't have a valid excuse, it's YOUR job to find the secretary or someone who attended and get the minutes. Only the exec. and alumni board need minutes on paper or online. I think if you take part in an organization and want to participate in the fun, then you have to show a little effort and initative on your own.

As for structure, ours goes a little different, old business, reports, new business, it's usually an informal setup, sometimes chaotic

RUgreek

HotDamGam · #8 03-26-2002, 11:23 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by RUgreek
In our house, if you don't come to the meetings and don't have a valid excuse, it's YOUR job to find the secretary or someone who attended and get the minutes. Only the exec. and alumni board need minutes on paper or online. I think if you take part in an organization and want to participate in the fun, then you have to show a little effort and initative on your own.

As for structure, ours goes a little different, old business, reports, new business, it's usually an informal setup, sometimes chaotic

RUgreek

Mine is much the same.

Tom Earp · #9 03-26-2002, 05:29 PM

mINUTES OF A MEETING MAY BE BONE DRY TO SOME! bUT IT IS TRUE, THAT IT IS A RECORD OF WHAT WAS GOING ON AND THE VOTE THAT WAS TAKEN! ( Oops did not realize big boy key on )?

We expulled a member who was our IFC Rep. and told him to vote a certain way and he did not! It changed the vote to what we did not want! I fought to keep him as a member but the only time I lost! In LXA wording, expulsion is, He is no longer recorded as being a member of our Fraternity! A Non entntity!
He stated in the hearing that that is the way he thought the vote was to be set! Minutes came out and he was wrong! He also was a ledgend in his own mind! Not! As I will never call him my Brother!

Minutes, ha that is the HISTORY OF YOUR CHAPTER! Boring as it may seeem, go back later and try to find history!

AGDLynn · #10 03-26-2002, 06:15 PM

It may depend on what minutes you are talking about. Some meeting minutes might not be available for "inspection" due to chapter room secrecy. Some organizations may have rules that if you weren't in the meeting, too bad! That way, people who only read the minutes and didn't hear the original discussion may get a wrong impression and spread the disinformation.

But, I do agree that from a historical and legal standpoint, the minutes must reflect any action discussed, esp. if a decision is made, lol.

MenaceKiller · #11 05-17-2002, 01:20 PM

Our school rules here are that meeting minutes of any campus organization are subject to immediate inspection and can be used against us once the minutes are approved by the brothers at the next weekly general meeting.

I've had to constantly remind brothers NOT to mention "party", "alcohol", "drugs", and other stupid little things in their reports. The secretary normally could edit things out, but then the next meeting we either have someone get upset that their reports were edited, or makes a motion to correct their report and THAT still ends up in the minutes!

However, I do like the historical addition that James brought up, and our current minutes are structured as follows:

Roll Call
Minutes Corrections
Executive Reports
Committee Reports
Advisor Reports
Old Business
New Business
Announcements
Commencement

Shine · #12 08-17-2002, 05:28 AM

I know I usually have minutes in my in-box when I wake up the next morning.

Our meetings are sooo structured.

Roll Call
Committee Time
Executive Board Reports
Old Business
New Business
Announcements
Commencement/Ceremony

DWAlphaGam · #13 08-19-2002, 10:00 AM

At my chapter, we didn't do formal minutes for chapter meetings, only for Executive Council meetings. Instead, we always sent out an e-mail reminder after business meetings with dates of events and important reminders, and we also had a giant dry-erase calendar hanging in the hallway of the house with all of the month's events listed. This way, everyone always had a way to find out what was going on even if they missed a meeting. I was VP Operations for a year, so I got all of the excuse notes, and it always made me so mad when people said they missed something because they didn't know about it because there is no way that you cannot know about something in advance unless you're living under a rock. Anyway, I don't think that a formal structure for minutes is as important as making sure that everyone knows what's happening.

Kevin · #14 08-19-2002, 10:43 AM

DW I'd disagree with that...

If you don't have minutes of meetings... How can you know what's happening? You can't expect people to actually agree on what happened last meeting 100% of the time.. and when they do, how do you resolve that conflict?

If you don't take minutes, the only part of your meeting that matters is announcments. And that's only if everyone is there.

CrucialCrimson · #15 08-19-2002, 10:51 AM

Minutes should record attendance, votes/actions taken and assignments made, but not all of the detailed discussion - also it is better to have committee chairs submit written reports to be incorporated into the minutes (just like the fiscal officers should be doing) rather than the secretary recording his/her account of what was said regarding events and issues. Minutes should be a history of your business not your organization - each committee/event chair needs to summarize the year's goals, achievements, etc. seperately because your history can be kept more confidential than your minutes and your secretary shouldn't control your history, your historians or past presidents generally have that task.