Hi Roberto,

Thank you very much for your question. I would agree with Dr. Simon that meeting minutes are extremely important. I have been in meetings may times where tasks have been assigned and deadlines have been established. Oftentimes if meeting minutes are not taken these deadlines can be missed or people do not know the tasks that were assigned to them. This is simply on the many ways that meeting minutes are extremely important.

-Andrew Nashed

I can only speak to my experience, but generally it's been as Roberto pointed out. Nobody really pays much attention to the minutes and they are more just for documentation purposes. The team or project leader always sends out revised timelines with deliverables after every meeting, followed by the minutes. Since we always operate based on what needs to be delivered, nobody finds a situation where the minutes are of importance. That being said, again this is only my experience. I can see situations where having minutes to look back upon can be vital, like for example if there is doubt about something having been done or if timelines/deliverables aren't always sent out regularly.

Meeting minutes are a very important part of the design change process of the device and development as well. It depends what stage you are in the the medical device development cycle, that certainly dictates the importance of the meeting minutes. When design changes occur or design review meetings, and changes are implemented it is important to note the members who were all in attendance, and who all agreed with the change. Also making note if marketing provide input as well as quality, regulatory and of course the R&D directors. That is where documenting changes are noted because it keeps a history of when something was updated, why it was updated, and who all had input on the update.

I think meeting minutes are important. They capture the essential information of a meeting – decisions and assigned actions. They keep attendees on track by reminding them of their role in a project and clearly define what happened in a group session. I found there are some common tips that should be pay attention for meeting minutes.

Before the meeting, it is crucial to create a template for recording your meeting minutes and make sure you leave some blank space to record your notes. During the meeting, it's better to record action items and decisions in your template as they happen – don’t wait until after the meeting to pull them out of your notes or you could make a mistake. If you don’t understand exactly what decision has been made or what action has been assigned, ask the meeting lead to clarify. Don't forget to review the notes and add additional comments, or clarify what you didn’t understand right after the meeting after meeting.

I want to tell you that i believe that meeting minutes is extremely important specially when people have so much work and they might forget something this will allow to go back and figure out what was said. For me i believe this is crucial, sometimes i do forget thing so easily, so having meeting minutes will allow me to remember what it was said, and what it was important of the meeting. When there is actually a lot that was say it would be nice that this is written down to reduce any confusion in the future of the project.

Hello Roberto,

This question is very interesting. Many people overlook the importance of meeting minutes. Meeting minutes are very crucial to industries such as medical devices. Things like important dates and details that someone might have not heard, or a crucial point made about the product might have been discussed and reported in those minutes. If they are not taken those details might be lost post the meeting. Think of it as a topic mentioned in class, if you don't take notes or someone else didn't, you go back to the lecture notes for information that you forgot. Similarly, but more importantly details discussed in companies' meetings can aid in a more successful turnout for the whole company.

- Lamiaa

Meeting minutes are important to recap what was said or done in a meeting. I have been tasked with taking minutes, but I know that no one really read them. It would be just sent to the manager and uploaded to SharePoint. Even though they were barely read they were a good tool to remember any action items that needed to be completed. It was good if someone said they were going to look into something or get back to something because it would keep them accountable for whatever they said they were going to do. Beside keeping everyone up to date on what happened in the meeting, I do believe that was one great part about the minutes.

Like others have said, meeting minutes are extremely important. They are they to track the progress of the project and what occurred during the meeting. If someone forgot a topic discussed in a very long meeting, the meeting minutes are there as a reminder. If a higher up needs to see the project progress, the meeting minutes are there to show the schedule. It also monitors each department's duties and makes sure everyone is up to schedule. If someone is slacking behind, then the meeting minutes can hold that person accountable. Moreover, even though it is not directly viewed by the FDA, the meeting minutes are used to aid in the progress of V&V and other required procedures that the FDA does care about.

Good discussion so far everyone. As everyone have mentioned, Meeting minutes is considered to be a very important tool to track project progress and keep everyone on track. From my experience, if you conduct a lot of meetings (especially virtual meetings such as WebEx, Skype, etc.) people tend to multitask during these meetings. This might lead to them losing part of the conversation or not fully comprehending the next steps to the project. This might lead to future disagreements or even halts the project progress. These meeting minutes serve as a good tool to communicate expectations, action items, project status to all team members. it will also define the people assigned to each action item and the estimated completion date for these tasks.

Meeting minutes are an extremely important part of any project, without this your project will easily failure. The bigger the project to the more important the meeting minutes are. Based on experience and as several you of you have already mentioned, most time test are quickly glanced over when sent out in emails. The issue here is, often time there are mistakes in dates, time, etc. or misinterpretation of a discussion or decision that was made. If these aren't caught right away they tend to cause a lot of issue in the project. So these are some reasons why it's important to review what was discussed, plus also to make sure that your inputs were correctly noted.

Hi Roberto
You brought interesting topic and good discussion so far. As we are going to work towards our final project I would like to point out what to include when writing down meeting minutes.

• Date, Time and Place of Meeting.
• Clear goal of meeting.
• Attendees list.
• Actions taken.
• Decisions made.
• Agenda for next meeting, if something should be carried forward from current meeting.

Minute Taker is the person who is responsible for Minute Meeting. Sometimes apologies are also added from the employees who were unable to attend the meeting.

-Hetal

Hi Roberto,

Meeting notes are important with respect to relaying critical information on projects to creating timelines for projects. I know in my experience, during these meeting we update the team on statuses of projects, revise timelines with deliverables. Lastly, it is during these meeting were concerns are addressed and future projects are discussed.

Chris

The responses on this post do a great job at illustrating why meeting minutes are important. Meeting minutes are there to represent what initiatives a company takes and serves as legal protection. The IRS, courts, and auditors will only look over actions completed by the company if they are documented as minutes, otherwise it does not exist in their books. Minutes show how, when, why, and who decisions were made by for easy reference in the future and further institutes an action plan that drives action to getting the work done. It is an important accountability tool since it reiterates on everyone's individual responsibilities and keeps track of who's getting their work done.

Although I have not yet been involved in a company meeting where meeting minutes were documented I can see why Dr. Simon has stressed the importance of the minutes in his lectures. These meeting minutes help document all vital information obtained from the meeting and can act as evidence for your role in the project if there is any issues with your boss. As mentioned if your boss feels you have been wasting your time by working on the project incorrectly you can always refer back to the meeting minutes as a documented file for why you are working on what you are. Meeting minutes can also help refresh all details discussed if you are having difficulties recalling some requirements that need to be met on the agenda. This also plays as a foundation to build on for your next meeting with your team. You can use the meeting minutes from the previous week to understand what aspects of the project are falling behind and needs more work. It helps keep your team moving to reach the ultimate goal. If you do not have any form of document monitoring the tasks your project needs to accomplish you may find your team missing deadlines.