As a previous secretary, there is a difference between a good set of minutes and a sub-par set of minutes. You know a set of minutes is good when someone who was not present at the time of the meeting but knows the general workings of the organization/company (be it a co-worker, a supervisor, etc.) can read through them and be caught up and not have any real questions about what occurred in the meeting. The more questions the reader has after reading, the more sub-par the minutes are. Allowing people to catch up on what they missed is just one of the important parts about minutes though. Another important part about minutes is the fact that they are a great way to keep history of what happens throughout a project as well as track progress. The weekly updates obtained from a meeting allow everyone to see the new discoveries that have been made or accomplishments/milestones that have been reached since the last meeting which keeps everyone on the same page. If there’s ever a dispute on the date something was agreed upon or if something was agreed upon in general, the two parties can just take a look back on the minutes and easily figure the situation out themselves. They know who to go to for more information if there is still anything left up in the air as well. To put it shortly, minutes are fantastic and crucial because they make it leagues easier to figure out what is going on, what isn’t going on, who is responsible for what, who is making progress, who isn’t making progress, who to ask a question to, etc.