Board meeting: how to take minutes

The minutes of a board meeting involve a great deal of responsibility and should meet the highest standards - from preparation and creation to follow-up.

After all, the impact of a meeting also depends on the implementation of resolutions and measures, which in turn is closely linked to proper documentation.

Step 1: Before the board meeting

Anyone taking care of the board meeting minutes should familiarize themselves with the procedures and objectives of the planned meeting in advance. This preparation time decreases with increasing experience - what is new territory for some people at first is routine for others for many years, which hardly requires any preparation time. Beginners in particular should first familiarize themselves with the specific circumstances and expectations within the company and ask about any special features of taking minutes.

For example, a distinction can be made between content and results minutes. The content minutes contain the topics discussed in detail, while the results minutes mainly cover the results of a meeting. The level of detail and text style are also a matter of taste and should be clearly agreed in advance.

The use of a template for board meeting minutes is also recommended. The document should contain all relevant points as standard and be based on the company's graphic guidelines. Attention should be paid to a clear and appealing form. The easiest way is to use appropriate software such as Apollo.ai, where the template is created once and can be reused and easily filled in for every board meeting.

The preparation of the minutes begins indirectly with the creation of the meeting agenda, which should be finalized in good time and shared with the participants. With Apollo.ai, not only can the scheduled time be entered for each agenda item in the meeting created, but further information and attachments can also be added if required. The assistant can request attachments from third parties and is informed digitally about their completion.

Step 2: During the board meeting

Once the preparatory work has been completed, there is (almost) nothing standing in the way of taking minutes of the board meeting. At this point, it is important to structure the content of the minutes according to the respective agenda. It is therefore advisable to divide the document into subsections based on the planned agenda items. In software solutions such as Apollo.ai, this structure is already predefined and only the relevant fields need to be filled in using a practical editor.

Board meeting minutes are usually structured as follows (or similar):

• Title
• date
• Place
• Secretary
• Present
• Absent (reason for absence)
• Guests (optional)
• Minutes per agenda item
• Results per agenda item
• Attachments (optional)
• Postponed agenda items
• Miscellaneous

Resolutions and to-dos resulting from the meeting are either part of the minutes or are recorded individually. Apollo.ai provides special functions and areas for this purpose. The advantage of separate documentation is that it is easier to track implementation afterwards and provides a better overview. Individual tasks and decisions are stored with all important details, responsibilities and deadlines and assigned to the persons carrying them out. Optionally, automated reports can be created for the decision-makers at any interval.

The personal skills of the person taking the minutes are also key to the successful recording of board meetings. Good minute-taking begins with attentive listening. Above all, it is important to distinguish between what is important and what is not. This is also linked to individual comprehension and the ability to concentrate. Board meetings can last for hours - it is therefore advisable to start the meeting with sufficient energy. Speed is also a key factor when taking minutes: the 10-finger system and very good PC skills are now basic requirements in the assistance sector.

Step 3: After the board meeting

After the board meeting, the minutes are normally sent to the managers for checking and approval. Any requests for changes are incorporated by the assistant. As soon as the feedback loops have been completed to everyone's satisfaction, the minutes are finalized and sent digitally to the meeting participants. Apollo.ai can support these steps of the process and also helps with practical versioning. Another major advantage of using software is that everything can be handled centrally via one platform. Likewise, after the meeting, the main focus is on implementing the agreed measures, which have a significant impact on the success of the meeting or the management team.  

As the content is usually confidential, it is also advisable to consider data security and data protection. In most cases, emails are not a secure method of sharing sensitive information. Ideally, the minutes of board meetings should be stored in a highly secure, digital location where old minutes can be retrieved quickly. Apollo.ai places the highest value on security. In addition, the stored information and documents can be found in real time using the power search.

Extra tip - "Minutes extracts":

Not all recipients always need to receive the complete minutes. Instead of manually copying individual content from the document and sending it by email, we recommend using a tool that makes it easy to send selected agenda items.

Optimize the minutes system with Apollo.ai

Apollo.ai supports management teams throughout the entire process of documenting board meetings and similar meetings. The process is handled centrally in a secure and easy-to-use platform.

This starts with the creation of suitable templates, continues with the recording of minutes live in the system during the meeting and ends with simple and legally compliant follow-up - including feedback loops, dispatch and archiving. In addition to the revision options, there are other practical functions such as the separate recording of resolutions and to-dos, the sending of minutes extracts to selected contacts or the use of digital signatures. In addition, old minutes can be retrieved in real time at any time using the practical full-text search and exported in PDF format at any time.