How to Chair a Meeting and Take Minutes

Business meetings are crucial for getting people together to brainstorm and collaborate, but  they require organization to be successful. Follow these tips to learn how to effectively chair a meeting and take minutes in an organized fashion.

1. Keep it small. Only invite people who are directly involved with the subject to be discussed.
2. Circulate an agenda beforehand. Summarize at the beginning of the meeting what is to be discussed and what you aim to achieve. Then work through the agenda point by point.
3. Stay on track. Your task as chair is to channel the flow of ideas. Don't allow the discussion to deviate. If there are six points on the agenda, and you have scheduled an hour, insist that the discussion moves on to a new point every 10 minutes.
4. Delegate minute-taking. Appoint someone else to take notes — you cannot both chair and take minutes effectively. Make sure all action points are minuted, and assign someone to take on each task.
5. Make it brief. The longer the meeting, the less productive it becomes. Don't aim to tackle too much at once. Better to have a follow-up meeting at a later date.
6. Timing is everything. Try to avoid organizing meetings for first thing in the morning, when people are most busy, or late afternoon, when energy levels have flagged.
7. Outlaw monologues. No one person should be allowed to dominate proceedings — especially not you. Make sure everyone has their say.

• Talk to the person chairing the meeting beforehand.
• Find out the purpose of the meeting, get a copy of the agenda and a list of invitees.
• During the meeting, don't try to take down every remark.
• Concentrate on actions to be taken (noting who they are assigned to) and write down any decisions that are made. These two categories — actions and decisions — should form the bulk of your minutes.
• Show a draft of your finished document to the chair of the meeting before circulating it to the invitees and any other relevant people.