Meeting Preparation and Minute Taking - Clare Jonker
1. Meeting Preparation and Minute Taking
Clare Jonker
Office of the Deputy Vice Chancellor (Academic)
6338 6110
cjonker@csu.edu.au
Office of the Deputy Vice Chancellor (Academic)
2. The Office of Academic Governance
• Services Academic Senate and its committees, including
Faculty Boards, Courses Committees, Assessment
Committees
• Manages the Universities Course Information: UCPC,
CASIMS, University Handbook
• Service Compliance Committees: Ethics in human and
animal research, Biosafety, Radiation Safety, Chemical
Safety.
Office of the Deputy Vice Chancellor (Academic)
4. References
•Style Manual for Agenda’s and Minutes of University Committees
(CSU, 1997)
www.csu.edu.au/acad_sec/manuals/stylemin.htm
•General Policy on Boards and Committees, Rules for the conduct of
meetings of Academic Committees B1.3 (CSU, 2011)
•Joske’s Law and Procedures at Meetings in Australia (Magner)
Office of the Deputy Vice Chancellor (Academic)
5. Managing the Meeting Process
• General Tasks
- Scheduling Meetings
- Booking venues
- Maintaining Committee Lists
- Issuing notice of meetings
- Calling for items
• Building Agendas
• Recording Minutes
• Preparing Action Sheets, promulgating decisions etc.
Office of the Deputy Vice Chancellor (Academic)
6. General Tasks
• Scheduling Meetings (12-18 months in advance)
http://www.csu.edu.au/acad_sec/meetingschdule/
• Maintain member information
• Manage (filter, organise, keep) the Information
• Distribute Information
- Notice of Meeting & Agenda (5 working days before the meeting)
- Late papers (2 working days before the meeting)
• Booking / Confirming Venues
http://wsww01/vcbookings
http://www.csu.edu.au/division/dit/services/service-catalogue/video-
conferencing/docs/pdf/maps/Campus.pdf
Office of the Deputy Vice Chancellor (Academic)
7. Preparing the Agenda
• Time frame: calling for items; agenda close; circulation
• Agenda Content:
- Name of Committee
- Date, Time, Venue
- List Business in order it will be dealt with
- Standing items
- Other items specific to the committee
Office of the Deputy Vice Chancellor (Academic)
8. Preparing the Agenda (cont.)
Standing Items:
Acknowledgement of Country
Apologies
Starring of Items
Confirming previous minutes
Business arising
Reports (Presiding Officer, Sub-Committee’s)
General Business
Urgent (Late) Business
Date of next meeting
Closure
Office of the Deputy Vice Chancellor (Academic)
9. Preparing the Agenda (cont.)
• Title and numbering of items
• Draft resolutions for each items to focus committee’s
attention
• Distribution List – membership and others
Review Example
Office of the Deputy Vice Chancellor (Academic)
10. Preparing the Agenda (cont.)
Other considerations?
•Electronic Agenda’s
•Drop Box
•Tips for preparing agenda’s
Office of the Deputy Vice Chancellor (Academic)
12. Recording the Minutes
Minutes are a complete and accurate record of everything that
is done at a meeting.
- Nature of the meeting, date, time, place
- Names of those present, the presiding officer and apologies
- New & departing members
- Confirmation of the minutes from the previous meeting
- Record of the business of the meeting in the order in which it is done
- All decisions arrived at by the meeting
- Notes of dissent from a resolution
- Verbal reports provided at the meeting (bullet points OK)
- Where account of discussion is considered necessary to put
resolution in context
Office of the Deputy Vice Chancellor (Academic)
13. Recording the Minutes (cont.)
• Page Numbers
- Continuous Numbering. Header: YY CODE PG# (e.g. 12 FBA 15)
- Footer: Date: DD MONTH YYYY (e.g. Date: 1 November 2012)
• Resolutions: written record of committees decision, passed
by a simple majority of votes.
- Commence with the words: “The (name of committee) agree...”
- Stand alone
- Numbered consecutively e.g CODE YY/# (e.g. FBA 12/45)
- Continuous Numbering
Office of the Deputy Vice Chancellor (Academic)
14. Recording the Minutes (cont.)
• Numbering Items
- Record the item in the sequence that they were considered at the
meeting (but record the original agenda item number in brackets
after the title in the minutes)
•* Starring of Items: Denotes items for discussion (each
unstarred item is adopted automatically)
• Confirm Minutes: Presiding Officer Signature, Archive
signed copy
• Quorum (half +1)
Review Example
Office of the Deputy Vice Chancellor (Academic)
16. Action Sheet
Issues by committee secretaries after each meeting to
ensure that action arising from each meeting is notified to,
and taken by, the appropriate person.
- Name of Committee & Date of meeting
- Item or Resolution Number
- Action
- By Whom
- By When
- For Information
Office of the Deputy Vice Chancellor (Academic)
Notes de l'éditeur
1.Graduate experience in VFF. 2. Slide. 3. 15 years working with committees. Some work well, some don’t. My view that – every body is busy so if we must have meetings we must make sure they are worth while. As committee secretaries, there are things we can do to make committees more worth while.
CSU has a way for doing meetings. This relates to committees of academic senate, but tends to trickle through other meetings. With this slide I plan to say that, even if you dont follow the CSU way, the information contained within this presentation is still useful because it is recognised as good practice for conducting meetings in Australia.
Cant talk about agenda’s and minutes without talking about all the other things Secretaries do. I think that it is ‘everything we do’ that contributes to the success of the meeting.
