1. Session Two Minutes Writing
CAES1507 Professional and Technical Written Communication for Engineers
Session Two
Minutes Writing

2. Roles of Participants
Chairperson?
Secretary?
Committee Members?

3. Effective Committee Meetings
The Chairperson
Planning
Informing
Preparing
Controlling

4. Effective Committee Meetings
The Secretary
Providing secretarial and administrative assistance to the Chairperson at the planning, informing and preparation stages
Taking notes during the meeting
Drafting the minutes after the meeting
Circulating the draft minutes for additions and/or corrections
Circulating the confirmed minutes among committee members

5. Effective Committee Meetings
The Committee Members
Explaining their ideas clearly
Reacting to other people’s ideas
Helping the chairperson keep the meeting going

6. Causes of Ineffective Meetings
Drifting off subject
Poor preparation
Lack of listening
Verbosity of participants
Length
Lack of participation
Lack of clear objectives or agendas
Unclear results
Poor organization
Poor chairing

7. Improving Ineffective Meetings
State the objective at the outset
Prepare an agenda
Be selective when picking participants
Manage meeting time
Take charge
Close with a summary

8. Note-Taking
Follow the agenda closely and listen carefully throughout. Ask for clarification wherever necessary
Take brief, relevant notes under each agenda item. Summarize the main points raised and record action to be taken and by whom, if relevant

9. Note-Taking
Interrupt the meeting at appropriate time if necessary, to make sure your notes accurately reflect what has been discussed
Check that you are happy about the notes after the meeting. If information is missing or vague – check with relevant member

10. Note-Taking
It is very important that you actually take notes during a meeting. Do not rely on your memory alone.
Although, you will have developed your own style of note taking, you may want to consider other alternatives like the one shown on p. 14 of the course notes.

11. Agenda
The following is an example of a typical meeting agenda. Discuss the following questions:
Why do we need an agenda before the meeting? (i.e. what are the purposes of having an agenda?)
What should be discussed under items 1, 2, and 7?

13. Minutes Draft the minutes as soon as possible after the meeting
Keep your notes until the minutes have been approved
Be selective – be accurate, brief and clear with your writing

14. Minutes
Put any action to be taken in a prominent place after each item. Include the names of the person responsible as well
Structure the minutes so that they follow the structure of the agenda, and avoid complicated numbering systems
Check your minutes with the chairperson and then circulate them to the other committee members as soon as possible (some time before the next meeting)

15. Minutes
Read the following example (pp ) of minutes of a meeting, of which the agenda has been discussed in the previous section.

16. Discuss the following questions with your classmates
What is the connection between the agenda and the minutes of a meeting?
What information should be included in the minutes? 
How is information arranged under each discussion item to make it reader-friendly? 
Which tenses are used in the minutes? Why are these tenses used? 
Personal pronouns (we, you, I, he, etc) are not used in the minutes. Why not? How do we avoid using personal pronouns?

17. Format of Minutes (1) Title of the Meeting Present: Name + Position
Minutes of the 3rd Meeting of the End of Year Project Exhibition Committee
Present: Name + Position
Linda Cooley Chair
Apology? Absence?

18. Format of Minutes (1)
Item 1 Confirmation of the minutes of the previous meeting
The minutes of the previous meeting were confirmed subject to the following amendment:
Item X Y was amended to Z OR
The minutes of the previous meeting were confirmed without any amendments
If no amendment needed
If changes needed

19. Format of Minutes (1) Item 2 Matters Arising
Latest report of the items raised / discussed in the previous meeting
Item 3: Of the three companies contacted for banners to promote the exhibition, the Bandwagon Company, Ltd. made the best offer of HK$500 each for banners and HK$400 each for banners in three colours.
Item number
General information WITHOUT reporting verbs: verbs in different tenses

20. Format of Minutes (1) Item 2 Matters Arising
AGREED: The Bandwagon Company Ltd. will be asked to produce 6 banners.
ACTION: Rose will liaise with the banner company about the details of design, size, content and colour scheme.
Capitalised for attention
Agreement / Actions not taken yet – Future tense

21. Format of Minutes (1) Item 2 Matters Arising
Item 5: The Finance Office confirmed that the overall budget for the exhibition would not be increased from last year due to the economic downturn. The budget is fixed at HK$10,000.
REPORTING VERB – Past Tense + reported speech

22. Format of Minutes (1) Item 3 XX (form of a noun phrase)
Insurance factors have required that a security system be installed for the exhibition. UST and HK PolyU recommended Production Management Systems as providers of customized temporary security systems
NOT REPORTING VERB – Different tenses

23. Format of Minutes (1) Item 3 XX
AGREED: The subcommittee on security for the exhibition will contact Mr. Jackson of Production Management Systems to see what they can provide.
ACTION: Robin
Item – Form of a Noun Phrase

24. Format of Minutes (1) Item 5 XX
The Chair informed the committee that the Estates Office
had circulated a notice stating that ALL visitors to the
campus would be required to pay the fees set by Wilson
Parking.
AGREED: A letter will be sent to the Estates Office asking them to exempt visitors from paying fees.
ACTION: Denis
PASSIVE VOICE

25. Format of Minutes (1) Item X A.O.B.
There being no further business, the meeting
closed / was adjourned at 4:30PM
Next Meeting: April 12 at 3:30PM

26. Minutes Writing Task
Now you will be shown the video of the 4th meeting of the End of Year Project Exhibition.
Take notes while you are watching it. You will be asked to produce the minutes for this meeting. The agenda of the meeting is on p. 19 of the course notes.