There was recently a thread on Quora about how to write meeting minutes effectively.



Some argued that it is about how you take notes, using short sentences organized into bullet points rather than full sentences. Others discussed what type of information is most relevant to be captured, and others argued that it’s the consistent format of meeting minutes that matters the most.



While these are all true, I argued differently…

The biggest failure in writing meeting minutes is when they are not read…

To avoid this, it’s best to share meeting minutes very soon after the meeting — otherwise you’ll simply forget it. If you don’t do this, it will be locked into your computer instead of being read — the no.1 reason to take meeting minutes after all — so your time as a minutes writer goes wasted.

… but even worse, if they are read but not useful to the readers.

Badly written meeting minutes are a waste of time for the readers, too. Good meeting minutes help readers get a clear and instant overview of the followings, in order of importance: