Minute Taking
Do any of these scenarios sound familiar?
- You or your colleague have sat in a meeting trying to participate and contribute to the discussion, but you are distracted from the conversation by having to take the minute?
- You spend the day (or evening!) before the next meeting trying to recall what was said 2 or 3 months ago from your scribbled notes and getting some sort of minutes together for review at the upcoming meeting.
- You know there was a list of actions at your last meeting, but you have no idea if they have been taken forward as other people may not have remembered them either.
The purpose of minutes from meetings can be for regulatory, statutory, or legal requirements. They can be to share information with stakeholders. They can be a record of discussions, plans and actions. But most of all, minutes should be an accurate and accessible record of the meeting to allow those plans to be moved forward and those actions to be taken. If you want meeting participants to be engaged, informed and able to contribute, you need to get clear, accurate and specific minutes out to them shortly after the meeting.
And as tip – always recirculate the minutes 10 days to a week before the meeting. Don’t let anyone be able to say they couldn’t remember what they needed to do or consider before the meeting. You will find this can be a significant step towards a well-run, productive meeting… believe me, we’ve sat through many of the other type!
Why You Would Use an External Minute Taking Service?
We are an independent, professional minute taking service.
You are likely to be having discussions about sensitive commercial, financial or personnel information. We maintain absolute impartiality, discretion and confidentiality.
Having an independent minute taker also allows meeting participants to freely share their thoughts, feedback and ideas. And those will be recorded, or not, as is appropriate. Part of the skill of a professional minute taker is in knowing what should and what should not be recorded in the minutes.
Our job when taking minutes is to provide a true and accurate record of the meeting, allowing you to satisfy your organisational requirements and move your business forward - no more, no less.
How the Minute Taking Service Works
We can attend meetings in person, virtually via Teams, Zoom or equivalent or from a recording.
Minutes take on average 1 – 1.5 hours to compile per hour of meeting and the first draft is sent back in 5 working days. Amendments or edits are then made before a final version of the minutes is provided.
If you have a template for your minutes with which you are already familiar, we will use that. If not, we can provide some suggested templates.
We will work with you on your required format and style. Some organisations want a very simple summary of discussions and a list of actions. Some want more details and to note individual contributions. Others want some parts of the meeting more or less transcribed due to the detailed and specific nature of the conversations. The aim for us is to provide the format that suits you.
Additional Support
We can provide a full range of meeting support services such as coordinating dates for meetings with participants, pre meeting agenda and document preparation, circulation of meeting documents to participants, distribution of approved minutes after the meeting and follow up on actions from the meeting.
Confidentiality
The service is provided under an Agreement which makes specific reference to our obligations and commitments to confidentiality. We also provide details on how information will be used under GDPR.
Confidentiality is a fundamental principle and specific expectation of our business. And we wouldn’t be in business very long without it!
To tell us more about what you need or to find out more about working with us, please contact us here or via hello@campionva.co.uk.
Pricing
All services are charged at £35.00 per hour for meeting attendance and minute creation (see the FAQs for a guide on how long it will take to generate the minutes).
For meetings outside of standard office hours (9:00am - 5:00pm) services will be charged at £42.00 per hour.
We have received outstanding support. Your services have improved the efficiency of our work. The quality of the services are excellent and I appreciate the kind and professional level of support that is provided.
CEO
UK Charity
Working with our VA Sarah has been a great experience. She`s responsive, picks up on what we need and carries out weekly tasks that used to take me ages to do which frees me up to do other things. We`ve worked with Sarah for a couple of years and it feels as though she is actually part of the team. We wouldn`t be without her!
JM, General Manager
Storage Company
