CAES1507Professional and Technical Written

Communication for Engineers

Session Two

Minutes Writing

Roles of Participants

Chairperson? Secretary? Committee Members?

Effective Committee Meetings

– The ChairpersonPlanningInformingPreparingControlling

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

Effective Committee Meetings

The Committee Members– Explaining their ideas clearly– Reacting to other people’s ideas– Helping the chairperson keep the meeting going

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

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

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

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

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.

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?

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

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)

Minutes

Read the following example (pp. 17-18) of minutes of a meeting, of which the agenda has been discussed in the previous section.

Discuss the following questions with your classmates

1. What is the connection between the agenda and the minutes of a meeting?

2. What information should be included in the minutes? 3. How is information arranged under each discussion item to

make it reader-friendly? 4. Which tenses are used in the minutes? Why are these tenses

used? 5. Personal pronouns (we, you, I, he, etc) are not used in the

minutes. Why not? How do we avoid using personal pronouns?

Format of Minutes (1)

Title of the Meeting– Minutes of the 3rd Meeting of the End of

Year Project Exhibition Committee

Present: Name + Position– Linda Cooley Chair

– Apology? Absence?

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 changes needed

If no amendment needed

Format of Minutes (1)

Item 2 Matters ArisingLatest 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 1-3

banners and HK$400 each for 4-10 banners in three colours.

Item number

General information WITHOUT reporting verbs: verbs in different tenses

Format of Minutes (1)

Item 2 Matters ArisingAGREED: 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

Format of Minutes (1)

Item 2 Matters ArisingItem 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

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

Format of Minutes (1)

Item 3 XXAGREED: 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

Format of Minutes (1)

Item 5 XXThe Chair informed the committee that the Estates

Office had circulated a notice stating that ALL visitors to

thecampus would be required to pay the fees set by

WilsonParking.

AGREED: A letter will be sent to the Estates Office asking them to exempt visitors from paying fees.

ACTION: Denis

PASSIVE VOICE

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

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.