Sick And Tired Of Taking Meeting Minutes? Now, You Are Free.
I know how that feels. I hate to attend meetings to take minutes. These days, fortunately, we need not have to do so. Using Zoom releases us from the annoyance of scribbling minutes that no one reads.
I remember that I used to be pumped being invited into client meetings. Many senior consultants told me that was the best way to learn about the business. Some say that is the best way to scale the learning curve. I was naïve, so I took those baits.
I learned one lesson.
The sucker in the meeting room is the one at the lower point of the corporate ladder. That was me (then). And that meant I assumed an important role, or so they say.
I was the default meeting minutes taker. Yup, I was contributing to the information sent to various inboxes. I often wondered if my wonderful, grammatically error-free writing and immaculate note-taking ability is being taken note of.
Would I be promoted for perfect note-taking?
I thought I would. I was never given a pat on the back for perfect note-taking. It was not being mentioned in my performance appraisal too.
That was 10 years ago.
Today, we live in a work-from-home environment. Workplace software has gotten more user-centric. There were many things that I used to do, and now technology saves me the heartache.
Zoom does its job as a multi-point virtual conference meeting facility very well. In fact, so well, that there is no need for the role of a meeting minute taker.
This is what I mean.
First, have a habit of recording the meeting to revisit the record for a subsequent review of discussion points.
Next, we will realize that the recording will be converted to Music Play 4 (MP4) format when the meeting has ended. We can choose to save in our local or Zoom cloud of our account.
Remember to take notes in between the meeting. I don’t mean every specific point that has been discussed or who said what. This is what I mean.
00:00 — Introduction of the Agenda.
02:00 — Presentation of Budget Highlights (CFO — SAM).
05:00 — Presentation of Budget Breakdown, Capital Expenditure (Financial Controller — Sally).
12:30 — Presentation of Projected Marketing forward expenditure (Marketing Director — Janus).
That is all we need to send in our email communication.
Do remember to attach the MP4 file before circulating it via email, Sharepoint hyperlink, or internal drive open folder.
I find this method effective. Instead of trying to recall who said what, who objected to whose idea, whether we should include or exclude the vulgarities hammers thrown all around the meeting — It is what it is.
The recording presents the authentic form of historical presentation.
How much time can we save from adopting this method?
I am not sure.
But.
I know one thing. It would not be the amount of time that I used to waste 10 years ago.
Plus. I don’t have to rely on my scribbled notes for reproducing the meeting minutes from paper to email, especially when I have to sit through multiple meetings in a day.
And sometimes, all I remember … is the client’s ability to curse in all colors and languages.
Feeling Happy That We Need Not Take Minutes Anymore?
Aldric
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