Administering Meetings Effectively (Minutes and Agendas)

Half day | Online or in person

This course is aimed at both dedicated administrative staff and those that just need to capture the events of a meeting while also being an active participant. Whether your meetings follow a traditional format around a large table or are exclusively online over video chat (or a hybrid of the two), this course is designed to enable to have meetings that follow an organised structure from start to finish, and leave you ready for the next one.

The focus of the content is on supporting the chair and attendees of any meeting to create structure and ensure that everyone knows why they are there and what they need to do. Core skills for writing agendas and minutes are covered alongside the people and communication skills for liaising with the chair and members.

What's Covered

Over the course of half a day this course covers the following:

  • Agendas and Minutes: Why meetings need administration
  • Building an Agenda: Liaising with the chair/members to prepare content with good layout and ownership
  • Writing Minutes: What needs to be recorded and how to write it, including choice of language alongside correct spelling and grammar
  • The Minute Taker's Role in a Meeting: When to intervene to clarify or summarise. Also, how to be the minute taker and an active contributor to a meeting
  • After the Meeting: Editing, filling in gaps, sharing with attendees
  • Full Circle: Last meeting's actions for the next meeting's agenda

This course leans into the benefits of technology to make writing minutes less of a chore, but focuses on capturing the interactions between the people that are present for meetings. The content is delivered through a combination of discussion and practical activities to support attendees in taking minutes whatever format their meeting takes.
All course content can be adjusted for you or your organisation. The course descriptions offer an overview of topics and do not represent an exact format or structure. If you need us to focus on a particular area or would like is to include something we don't mention, just let us know and we'll do our best to make it work for you!