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Yesterday, Wanda, Prentice, and I attended a class, “The Minute Taker’s Workshop” offered through the PDC (Professional Development Center) here at Wake Forest. The workshop was intended to help a person know his or her role as minute taker and to learn the best techniques for producing accurate and informative minutes.

During the first half of the class we discussed the purpose of minutes, the tasks expected of you as a minute taker at the meeting, and some of the issues and problems that arise for the minute taker at meetings. During the open discussion it became apparent that many of the people there shared the same problems a few of which were; how do I know what’s important enough to records in the minutes and what isn’t and how do I take minutes of something when I don’t understand the topic they are discussing. The facilitator had guidelines to help on what to record and what not to record and that as a minute taker we should not be afraid to ask for clarification to make sure the minutes are accurate.

The second half of the class covered the writing of the rough draft and who should see it, proof reading to check on spelling and punctuation, and the filing of the final draft. It was recommended that the minutes be prepared immediately following the meeting because studies showed that immediately after listening to someone talk you can only recall 50% of what was heard and after a week the percentage drops to 10% and as a minute taker you should not depend on memory to recall important decisions.

The facilitator, Beth Malone, had good suggestions and made what could have been a boring class engaging and enjoyable.