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Minutes for meetings

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(@jdfoster01)
Posts: 17
Active Member
 

Meeting minutes should be unbiased, accurate, and factual recording of information. The chance to explain what tasks to complete, by when, and who is accountable for that action is provided by the minutes. This serves to hold participants responsible moving forward by serving as a reminder of their commitments made during the meeting. Minutes from a meeting can also serve as a starting point for the following meetings to track progress. Meeting minutes can provide accountability for agreements made during the meeting.

 
Posted : 02/08/2022 6:59 pm
(@dbeaufort)
Posts: 22
Eminent Member
 

It is the opinion of the writer that documenting meeting minutes play an important role in the organization and success of various companies and groups. For example, providing meeting minutes upon the completion of an important business meeting could ultimately aid in preventing any confusion and to provide clear details and instructions as to what may be expected for future references. In this case, if a leader of a medical devices company decides to anonymously vote on the implementation of a certain technique or development of a new device as a whole, this could be implemented into the meeting minutes. If the previously mentioned idea was not implemented into the meeting minutes that the company members voted, as opposed to the overall leader of the company itself decided to make a solo decision, this could ultimately prevent any confusion or conflict amongst other members of the company overall. Ultimately, documenting meeting minutes allows each member who is a part of a company or group to have a guide or reference to what was discussed during the meeting, follow up on old ideas, and to hold other group leaders accountable for things that may need to be implemented or conducted in the future.

 
Posted : 03/08/2022 3:48 pm
(@kcrudupmsm-edu)
Posts: 19
Active Member
 

Having minutes for meetings to be distributed to the participants of the meetings afterward helps to keep everyone on the same page after the meeting takes place. It basically becomes a deliverable for everything that was discussed in the meeting. Having one person take notes for the entire meeting is the most efficient way in my opinion to have information spread among the participants. However, some people prefer to take their own notes during the meeting to be able to highlight certain aspects that may apply specifically to them. Both these methods of minute taking allow for clear communication of events, expectations, and questions for everyone involved.

 
Posted : 03/08/2022 8:21 pm
(@aaronaba)
Posts: 18
Active Member
 

Hello, 

I am, like many of our correspondences, of the opinion that minutes during meetings can be somewhat crucial in not only delegating tasks and providing direction, but also keeping you on the same page with your co-workers. I think that missing deadlines is not particularly challenging to do in a society like ours where stimulation comes from every nook and cranny. Being able to actively manage tasks and have a generalized understanding of the trajectory of your team will help establish a stronger foundation in you and your colleagues about what needs to happen and at what time.

 
Posted : 03/08/2022 9:32 pm
(@syjohnsonmsm-edu)
Posts: 21
Eminent Member
 

I agree with most of the responses that meeting notes are essential for directing responsibility and establishing deadlines. They serve as protection for everyone. For example, if a situation arises where there is conflict due to miscommunication the understanding of designated tasks, the document can serve as a baseline for correction. In meetings I have been in where minutes were required, they were detailed and sent immediately after the meeting ended to ensure all participants were aware of what was discussed and what actions need to take place and when. The notes were sent to the individuals who were unable to attend also so that they are made aware of topics covered that meeting and no one was out of loop on area specific information.

 
Posted : 04/08/2022 7:06 pm
(@veron_perez)
Posts: 78
Trusted Member
 

Minutes are an important part of any meeting and project because it keeps everything organized. During meetings a lot of different ideas can get bounced around and it's easy to lose focus on what’s being said as a whole. And in some cases once the meeting is over, there can be information that is forgotten if there were not minutes written for it. It allows for a concise outline of what was discussed at the meeting and is easy to refer back to for whoever needs it. Minutes are also a great way to keep track of when things were said and the timeline can be worked off that. In my meetings, even for just group work, it has been beneficial because it ensures that everyone is on the same page. There are also multiple occasions where each person is doing multiple things at once so having something as a refresher for anyone in the meeting is going to benefit the whole.

 
Posted : 03/11/2022 5:53 pm
 tgt6
(@tgt6)
Posts: 79
Trusted Member
 

Like others have stated in this thread, the meetings are an important resource for documenting what was said in the meeting and the points that were covered. Overall, just having the meeting minutes does not prove to be much more than just a form of documentation unless there are actionable points written in the meeting minutes. Having action items will help reinforce the necessity of having a meeting rather than just sending out the information discussed in an email to save everyone time. Meetings should all have a purpose and there should be something that you want to get out of them, or else it becomes more inefficient than efficient. Meeting minutes are still very important as long as the meeting itself was held to a certain standard and having people review what was gone over during it will help keep everyone on the same page.

 
Posted : 06/11/2022 5:01 pm
(@sandra-raju)
Posts: 38
Eminent Member
 

While I was taking capstone/senior project my final year of undergrad, we needed to develop a new device from conception and planning, to actually building and testing it. Before this class, I would take minutes for club meetings so that we would have a record of what went on and what was discussed, but I didn't really see nor understand the usefulness of doing this. However, throughout capstone, it was crucial that thorough meeting minutes were taken every meeting as well as a report of whatever was done and how it was done every week. Since capstone was 2 semesters long (about 7-8 months), most of the time we could not remember why we decided to do one thing and not the other, nor would we remember what we did in the past or what mistakes were made. This was especially prevalent when we started building the device and couldn't understand why we made certain design decisions. Meeting minutes helped us go back and see our thought process at the time and make more informed decisions as to what we should change or if we should at all. Thought processes change all the time and clearly things will change in the lifecycle of a product from conception to tangible product, but by having a record of what these changes were, and why they occurred, any future changes can be well informed from the team's past thought process and research. 

 
Posted : 07/11/2022 12:17 am
 sg
(@sohinighosal)
Posts: 25
Eminent Member
 

I realized the importance of taking minutes during a meeting, especially when I was working on my capstone project. During our sessions we would have just one person taking our minutes, while the rest of us just listened. This was really not an efficient way of going about it, because we realized that one person cannot always hear or remember everything. Sometimes others will catch onto certain details or discrepancies. The result of this bad planning, was that we realized that our minutes taker  had misheard something vs. someone else had remembered hearing something completely different to what the minute taker had written down. This would ensue some debate where we would try to figure out what was said exactly and how to revert any work we had done with this misinformation. Initially, this would just waste a lot of time and we would come to the next meeting about just as equally confused as the first. This eventually, stopped happening when all of us started taking minutes, and we had a more reliable source sot compare and contrast our thoughts and ideas.

 
Posted : 07/11/2022 12:45 am
(@jbarbee)
Posts: 78
Trusted Member
 

Meeting minutes are essential in keeping record of meetings. During these meetings, critical information is discussed such as any modifications to the project, project status, discussion of roles, milestone expectations, and much more. Meeting minutes specifically keep record of those that attend the meeting, major goals and agendas for the meeting, and the conclusions of the meeting laying out decisions that were made. Without these meetings, companies may lack unification in decision-making and project progress. Meeting minutes ensure the compliance and adherence of all project team members and certify the communication within the organization.

 
Posted : 07/11/2022 12:55 am
(@ej851996)
Posts: 78
Trusted Member
 

I believe the meeting recording is essential. I used to attend a meeting that several research teams needed to report to the head of research and development. Each team would give their progress presentation one by one. Some of the projects were related, but some were not. That was my first time attending a meeting like this then, so it was difficult to catch up on everything and remember the contact related to our project at the meeting. It's very helpful for me to receive a recording after the meeting to know where we should modify the next step and which department we should connect with.

 
Posted : 08/11/2022 10:26 pm
(@sm2744)
Posts: 78
Trusted Member
 

Taking meeting minutes is very important. It summarizes important project information such as design changes or deadlines. It covers what the meeting was about. In addition to summarizing information for individuals who may have forgotten what the change was or whatnot, it also creates a "paper trail." With the minutes, if there was a situation when engineer 1 did something that engineer 2 points out was changed, the minutes can be pulled up. In a more extreme context, a paper trail like this would be very useful in a whistleblower case. If, for example, the company discussed changing a certain design component due to some concern and it was recorded but not changed, the whistleblower would have more credibility. While not a medical device, the example that I am thinking of is the Ford Pinto, where engineers voiced their concerns for a part that was known to fail and cause injury, but were steamrolled by execs who cared more about profits as it would be too costly for them to fix the issue. I don't know how record keeping was kept back then, but it seems like it was less meticulous and a lot was based on word of mouth. Now with emails and messaging apps like Slack or MS Teams, I think it would be harder to keep bad information hidden if something similar was to happen at a large company, especially a medical device company. 

 
Posted : 13/11/2022 6:54 pm
(@ameen)
Posts: 52
Trusted Member
 

A meeting can be kept productive by having an agenda at every meeting (which can be included in the meeting minutes). When communicating vital project information and developing project deadlines, meeting notes are crucial. Meeting minutes are a crucial component of every project; without them, yours will likely fail. The meeting minutes are more significant the larger the project. According to experience and as several of you have previously mentioned, most time tests received through email are rapidly skimmed. Even if not all of the details are pertinent, doing so both improves my memory of the meeting and gives me a framework on which to base my weekly plan. Sincerity dictates that keeping minutes is likely more of a matter of taste. Finding a system that works for you to take meeting notes is a skill in organization.

 
Posted : 13/11/2022 8:28 pm
(@ms2768)
Posts: 67
Trusted Member
 

I currently work as a research and development engineer at a medical device company and was introduced to our design controls process just last week. To no surprise, the project leaders mentioned the importance of meeting minutes because documentation is one of the most important parts of the entire design control process. I had mentioned this in one of my posts from a previous week, but the main design control meetings such as design change requirement meetings require every member in the project to be physically present, otherwise the meeting minutes and the material may not be valid. As all the posts previously have mentioned, meeting minutes are a key component to the design change process and should be treated as such, these can easily make or break a project if not valued and handled accordingly. 

 
Posted : 13/11/2022 8:59 pm
(@hmara)
Posts: 76
Trusted Member
 

As has been repeated time and time again, meeting minutes can save the team lots of trouble in terms of miscommunication, legal issues, and design traceability. During my time in various groups, those that kept meeting minutes were much more productive. The ability to self-reference is a monumental advantage to any project group, with a concrete record of spoken thoughts in a central place; ideas can be re-hashed and expanded upon. In general, it can save a team from running in a loop. Besides the fact that they are part of ISO regulations; meeting minutes are a surefire way to ensure that progress is being made, and that meetings are productive.

 
Posted : 13/11/2022 10:52 pm
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