Minutes arising: The good, the bad and the ugly

by Peter Smiles AGIA Chair of Governance Institute’s Corporate and Legal Issues Committee, and Vicki Vordis FGIA member of Governance Institute’s Legislation Review Committee
  • Board papers do not need to be long or complex.
  • Providing a run sheet to the chair ahead of the meeting will assist with facilitating the smooth running of the board meeting and give shape to the minutes.
  • Retaining your notes of the meeting is not best practice as this may undermine the integrity of the minutes, which are the final record of the meeting.

Notepad and pen on boardroom table

The popularity of our recent webcast, Minutes — The good, the bad and the ugly, demonstrated how much interest there is in learning how to produce better minutes. While our conversation was free-flowing and covered many topics, some key themes emerged.

Good minutes are the result of good pre-meeting preparation

Minutes are the end result of a process that begins with the drafting of the agenda and then the board papers — there should be a seamless flow from the board papers, to the discussion and decisions at the meeting, to the company secretary’s notes to the final approved minutes.

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