Use the word in the subject line “Minutes” Use the word and the meeting date in the subject line of the email. For example, “Minutes” minutes for <tc-name> 2017-07-24.” “Draft This seems obvious but from time to time people forget to do it. For someone trying to find a record of your prior meetings, it is very frustrating to search the archive for the word and finding nothing. “minutes” Similarly, if you write the minutes in a word processing file and load it to your document repository, use and the meeting date in the title of the document. This will ensure “Minutes” that the word appears in the automatically generated email sent from the repository. Put your minutes in the text of your email We recommend putting your minutes directly into the text of the email message to the committee’s mailing list. That is the most convenient format for searching and linking. You are welcome, of course, to keep minutes in a stand-alone document like OpenOffice, MS Office, or PDF so long as they are stored in the committee’s document repository and an email including the link to the document is sent to the mailing list. This should happen automatically when you upload the file. Note that you can keep draft minutes in a mutable format such as a wiki or a Google Doc. However, you should treat these as scratch pad formats - e.g. for drafting live minutes during a meeting. The final, approved form must be fixed and immutable. (A word processing document qualifies once it is loaded into your document repository.) Note that TC Administration will not act on motions documented in wikis or other mutable formats. List changes of TC status in the minutes One helpful addition to TC minutes is a statement of who gained or lost voting rights as of the last meeting and changes in status such as Leaves of Absence. For example: Name Affiliation Role Present Kevin Mangold (KM) US National Institute Chair, Voting Member Yes of Standards and Technology Ross Micheals (RM) US National Institute Secretary, Voting Member Yes of Standards and Technology Anne Wang (AW) 3M HIS (Cogent) Voting Member Cathy Tilton (CT) Daon Member (may vote after the end Yes
Use the word “Minutes” in the subject line Use the word “Minutes” and the meeting date in the subject line of the email. For example, “Draft minutes for <tc-name> 2017-07-24.” This seems obvious but from time to time people forget to do it. For someone trying to find a record of your prior meetings, it is very frustrating to search the archive for the word “minutes” and finding nothing. Similarly, if you write the minutes in a word processing file and load it to your document repository, use “Minutes” and the meeting date in the title of the document. This will ensure that the word appears in the automatically generated email sent from the repository. Put your minutes in the text of your email We recommend putting your minutes directly into the text of the email message to the committee’s mailing list. That is the most convenient format for searching and linking. You are welcome, of course, to keep minutes in a stand-alone document like OpenOffice, MS Office, or PDF so long as they are stored in the committee’s document repository and an email including the link to the document is sent to the mailing list. This should happen automatically when you upload the file. Note that you can keep draft minutes in a mutable format such as a wiki or a Google Doc. However, you should treat these as scratch pad formats - e.g. for drafting live minutes during a meeting. The final, approved form must be fixed and immutable. (A word processing document qualifies once it is loaded into your document repository.) Note that TC Administration will not act on motions documented in wikis or other mutable formats. List changes of TC status in the minutes One helpful addition to TC minutes is a statement of who gained or lost voting rights as of the last meeting and changes in status such as Leaves of Absence. For example: Name Affiliation Role Present Kevin Mangold (KM) US National Institute of Standards and Technology Chair, Voting Member Yes Ross Micheals (RM) US National Institute of Standards and Technology Secretary, Voting Member Yes Anne Wang (AW) 3M HIS (Cogent) Voting Member Cathy Tilton (CT) Daon Member (may vote after the end Yes
Best-practices-for-meeting-minutes.docx