5.3 Summarizing Oral Information: Taking Meeting Notes

Why Take Meeting Notes

In your career you will, undoubtedly, participate in team projects. Team projects involve team meetings. To help keep track of a project’s progress and to help remember critical information, it is important to take effective notes during meetings.

Meeting notes are different from meeting minutes. Meeting notes are recorded for general personal reference. Meeting minutes, on the other hand, are more formal documents that are recorded and shared with all attendees and perhaps other stakeholders. Therefore, meeting minutes must be approved by all attendees and must be signed off by a director or manager.

How to take effective meeting notes

Begin by preparing for your meeting notes beforehand.

Either on paper or on a digital file, record as much of the following information as is available:

• Date and time
• Meeting participants
• Purpose of the meeting
• Key points on the agenda, if one is provided beforehand

Create general categories under which you can record information as it develops during the meeting. Some useful general categories include

• Issues
• Decisions
• Action Items
• Questions
• Deadlines

During the meeting, record information in the appropriate categories and create new ones if necessary.

After the meeting, review your notes and update them if necessary.