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Meeting Minutes

The agenda becomes the minutes

The meeting agenda and minutes are the same working Google Doc. During the meeting, take notes directly in the agenda. After the meeting, update that document to reflect what happened and rename it as the meeting minutes. Do not create a separate minutes document by default.

Record the meeting

  1. Open the meeting's agenda document and take notes in it during the meeting.
  2. Record reports, decisions, and relevant discussion accurately.
  3. For each motion, record who made it, who seconded it, and whether it carried.
  4. After the meeting, complete and clean up the notes in the same Google Doc and rename it to identify it as the minutes.

Review at the following meeting

The minutes remain pending approval until they are reviewed and approved at the following club meeting. Include their review/approval on that meeting's agenda, and make the working Google Doc available beforehand so members can review it. In the following meeting's own minutes, record the motion, seconder, and outcome of the approval, along with any corrections agreed during that review. Update the earlier meeting's working Google Doc accordingly.

Do not distribute a draft as if it were the final approved minutes.

Finalize and distribute

After approval at the following meeting:

  1. Apply any approved corrections to the Google Doc.
  2. Export or download the finalized minutes as a PDF.
  3. Verify that the PDF contains the correct meeting date and final text.
  4. Attach the finalized PDF directly to an email sent to the club Google Group by replying to the original meeting's email thread. Verify the attachment is the approved version before sending. Do not upload the finalized PDF to Google Drive as part of this procedure.
  5. Keep the working Google Doc with the club's meeting records; the approved PDF is distributed as an email attachment, not uploaded to Google Drive.

See Meeting Lifecycle and Announcements for the email thread convention and post-meeting follow-ups.

Source

Secretary Responsibilities Cheat Sheet, supplemented by the club's confirmed approval and PDF distribution practice.