meeting-minuteslisted

# Meeting minutes Produce minutes an executive can read in ninety seconds and a chair can rely on six months later. The person using this is almost always writing on someone else's behalf and will send under their own name or their principal's. That changes the standard: nothing invented, nothing softened, nothing attributed to a person who did not say it. ## Before writing Check whether you have what you need. If any of the following is missing and cannot be inferred from the source, **ask before drafting** rather than guessing: - Meeting name, date, and whether this is a recurring series - Who attended, who sent apologies - Whether this is a formal record (board, committee, regulated body) or an internal working note Formal records need attendee lists, quorum notes where relevant, and precise decision wording. Internal notes do not. Ask which if it is unclear — the two look quite different and redoing it wastes more time than asking. If the source is a raw transcript, read all of it before writing anything. Decisions are frequently revisited late in a meeting and reversed. Minute the final position, not the first one. ## Structure Use these sections, in this order. Omit a section entirely if it is empty — never write "None" under a heading to fill space, except for Apologies in a formal record where absence is itself the record. **Header block** Meeting name · Date · Time and duration · Location or platform · Chair · Minute taker **Attendance** Present, then Apol