MINUTES OF THE MEETING:Committee Membersâ€™ Roles, Producing the Minutes

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Lesson 28

MINUTES OF THE MEETING

Preparing Minutes of Meetings

In a typical business, many committees and task forces operate within the company. The purpose of

committees is to discuss various problems and to make recommendations to management. A

standing committee is one that operates permanently year after year, although its members may

change. A task force is a group of people who are appointed to solve a specific problem; when they

make their recommendation on the `task' assigned to them, the task force is disbanded. Each department

may have several committees that meet periodically usually once a week, every two weeks, or

monthly. If you are working in a sales department, for example, there may be committees on

advertising, sales conferences, commissions, forms control, product development, public relations,

and so on.

A meeting has been called....

Statutory

..... because the law demands ... shareholders', creditors', director',

councillors' meetings

Managerial

.... To progress company

to inform of policy, to brief, to delegate

affairs

tasks, to discuss problems, to reach

group decisions, etc

Creative

.... to generate ideas, to open to `brainstorm' around the idea of what

up new possibilities or avenues the firm could design, manufacture; to

of action

produce an advertising slogan, poster,

etc.

Negotiating

.... to reach a solution to a

management and trade union to agree

problem acceptable to two

pay increases

sides with different interest

General/

.... to report back to a group Annual General Meeting of shareholders

public

membership, or to air matters or club membership meeting; public

of public interest

enquiries into planning proposals

(members & roles)

Members of Meetings & their role

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Committee Members' Roles

· The Chairman's Role: to coordinate the work of the committee.. Leader, guide, umpire.

· The Secretary's Role: to carry out the administrative work of the committee... organizer,

chairman's right hand

· The Treasurer's Role: to monitor the committee financial activities

· The Committee Member's Role: To participate at meetings and do work delegated to him or

her.

· (Special terms)

Preparing Minutes of Meetings

Special terms for meetings

· Ad hoc for the particular purpose of

· Advisory submitting suggestions or advice to a person or body entitled to carry out decisions and

actions.

· Agenda a `timetable' listing items for discussion at a meeting

· AGM Annual General Meeting

· Apologies for absence written or orally delivered excuse for not being able to attend a meeting

· Chairman coordinator of a committee, working party, etc.

· Chairman's agenda like to ordinary agenda but containing additional information for guidance

· Executive having power to act upon and carry out decisions.

· Ex officio by reason of an existing office or post

· Honorary performing a duty without payment

· Minutes written summary of a meeting's business

· Motion a topic formally introduced for discussion

· Nem con no one disagreeing

· Opposer one who speaks against

· Other business items discussed outside main business of meeting

· Proposer one who speaks in favour of a motion

· Resolution a decision reached after a vote at formal meetings a motion successfully introduced

· Secretary committee administrator

· Sine die indefinitely

· Standing committee one which has an indefinite term of office

· Treasurer financial guardian

· Unanimous all of like mind

Minutes of Informal Meetings

The written record of the proceedings of a meeting is called the minutes of the meeting. Since most

meetings in business are informal (that is, do not follow the rules of parliamentary procedure), the minutes

are also informal. The minutes usually include the date, time, and place of the meeting; the name of the

presiding officer; a list of those present (and frequently those absent); and the time of adjournment.

Discussions are usually summarized.

Usually the minutes are signed by the person who took them and sometimes by the presiding officer as well.

Minutes are usually duplicated, and copies are sent to each person present at the meeting and to other

designated officials. Lets look at the minutes of a meeting.

Presiding:

Naeem Ahmad, President

Present: Ahmad Ali

Muhammad Aleem

Sara Zaman

Yousif Habib

Absent: Munir Ahmad

Muhammad Asif

Tariq Nazir

After calling the meeting to order at 3:15 pm. The president asked the treasurer for a brief report....

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The president asked Sara Zaman, chairperson of the investment committee, for the committee

recommendation....

The president asked Ahmad Ali of Lauder, Bennet, and Laser, the club's broker, to comment....

Mr Habib announced that the club's annual picnic is schedule for Saturday, Sept 14, at Al-Hamra Hall in

Lahore......

The meeting was adjourned at 5:30 pm

Respectfully submitted,

Hassan

Secretary

Minutes of Formal Meetings

Minutes of meetings that follow parliamentary procedure are somewhat different in form from the informal

minutes illustrated here. Formal minutes do not include discussions. Only motions, resolutions, committee

assignments and reports, and other specific accomplishments are included. Topical headings are used for

easy reference and how the recorder has briefly summarized a speaker's remarks. Note, too, that motions

should be worded specifically followed by the name of the person who made the motion and the name of

the seconded.

Resolutions to express sympathy, appreciation, congratulations, and the like are often passed at formal

meetings.

The paragraphs giving the reasons for the resolution are introduced by the word WHEREAS

(followed by a comma) and that the paragraphs stating the action to be taken are introduced by the word

RESOLVED (also followed by a comma).

Time & Place: The regular monthly meeting of the Historical-Commercial Club of Lahore was called to

order by the president, Naeem Ahmad, on Friday, February 8, 2006, at 2 pm in the Jinnah room of the

Plaza Hotel

The minutes of the last meeting were read

Minutes

and approved.

Treasurer's report

The following report was given by Fatima

Hanif, the treasurer:

Balance on hand, Jan 1, 2006

Rs. 23720.90

18160.50

Total

41881.40

Paid out in January

8500.00

----------------

Balance

33381.4

The treasurer's report was accepted.

Old Business

It was moved, seconded, and voted that a booklet

describing local commercial site of historic interest be written and

published by the club and distributed to local schools.

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New Business

After a discussion about improving the club's ability to

advise the local media about its activities, a committee consisting

of Fatima Hanif, chairperson; Sara Ahmad, Iqbal was appointed

to report the next meeting.

Program

Naeem Ahmad introduced Ms Munir, an archaeologist at

City University......

The meeting was adjourned at 4:15 pm

Respectfully submitted

Zaheer

Secretary(producing minutes)

Producing the Minutes

Resolution minutes

Some types of meeting those of boards of directions, for example record only the decision

reached, usually after a vote. The arguments, initial disagreements or conflicting views remain unwritten or

unrecorded. Thus a lengthy discussion on the pro's and con's of keeping a barely profitable branch store

open may be badly summarized as:

5 Liberty Branch

It was resolved that the company's liberty branch be closed with effect from 31 May 2006 and the premises, fixtures

and fittings offered for sale

Such minutes usually include the word `resolved' and may indicate the pattern of voting. Otherwise, the

items, `Apologies for Absence', `Minutes of the Last Meeting', `Matters Arising' and `Date of Next Meeting'

follow the pattern of narrative minutes. Note that in some formal meetings, the `Matters Arising' and `Any

Other Business' items are not included, as a tighter rein is kept on what may be discussed.

Narrative Minutes( fuller picture & view)

Sometimes referred to as minutes of narration, narrative minutes tell more of the `story of what

happened and who said what at a meeting. The main points of the background and discussion leading to a

decision are recorded, and so anyone reading such minutes will gain a much fuller picture of a committee's

work and views.

Narrative minutes are recorded in reported speech. This simply involves referring to committee

members in the third person either by their office `The chairman said..' or by name, `Mr Naeem asked

whether ....' When decisions are reached by a vote, expressions such as, `it was generally agreed that....' `It

was therefore decided that....' Are used to introduce the details of the decision. Further, to keep the record

objective and neutral, the passive is often used: `The secretary was asked to write to the Council to.....'.(Care

regarding narration)

Care must be taken when recording narrative minutes that verb tenses are appropriate and that the time

interval between the actual discussion at the meeting and the later recording of the minutes does not lead to

confusion:

He said he would contact the suppliers next week.

At the time this statement was made, `next week' was true, but if the minutes were distributed and

read a fortnight after the meeting took place, it would no longer be true; this expressions like `the following

week' are more accurate.

Action Minutes

Busy committees sometimes like to introduce a right hand blank column beside the minutes in

order to put a designated committee member's name against a particular task to be carried out:

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6 Annual games

The secretary was asked to seek approval to use the company sports Ground again.

Action by:

Secretary

Some rules of indirect speech

`I'm sorry I'm late. I missed the bus.' DIRECT SPEECH

He said that he was sorry he was late. He had missed the bus. REPORED SPEECH VERSION.

He apologized for being late. He had missed the bus.

Some rules

Rule one: persons/pronouns

he, she

you

they

you (pl)

Rule two: the tenses of verbs

Rule three: the distancing effect

Today... that day, now.... then, here.... there, this .... that, these ..... those, tomorrow ...

the next/ following day, yesterday .... the previous day

Rule four: conveying the tone of the direct speech

If the reported speech writer is not very careful, the reporting may easily slip into a dull `he

said, she said, he said, she said', so it is important to vary the words that introduce the reported

speech:

Asked that, wondered whether, strongly denied that, confirmed that, suggested that,

suggested that, etc.

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