Common mistakes in meeting minutes include recording too much or too little, missing key decisions and waiting too long to distribute them. Here is what boards get wrong most often.
Writing a transcript instead of a record. Minutes are not a word for word account of everything said. They are a record of what was decided. If your minutes read like a court transcript you are doing too much.
Missing motions or votes. Every motion needs to be recorded with who made it, who seconded it and how the vote went. Skipping this is the most consequential mistake you can make.
Leaving out absentees. Who was not there matters as much as who was. Quorum challenges start here.
Waiting too long to distribute. Minutes should go out within a few days of the meeting while everything is still fresh. Waiting until the next meeting is too late.
Not recording action items. If the board agreed that someone would do something by a certain date that needs to be in the minutes. Verbal agreements without a written record disappear.
Approving minutes without reviewing them. Rubber stamping last month's minutes without actually reading them is how errors become part of the official record.
Good minutes are not glamorous. They are the thing everyone ignores until something goes wrong. Then they are the only thing that matters. Check out our Meeting Agenda Hub for more.
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