The Case for Hiring a Professional Board Secretary / Minute Taker

The Case for Hiring a Professional Board Secretary / Minute Taker
  • Are you trying to run a meeting and take minutes at the same time?
  • Do you have an AGM or Shareholders meeting coming up and need professionally presented minutes?
  • Do you spend valuable time rewriting poorly captured minutes?
  • Is your current minute taker on leave?
  • Are you having a confidential HR discussion such as a disciplinary investigation and need it to be on the record?
  • Are you looking to sell or acquire a business and need someone independent to capture conversations between parties?
  • Do you need someone to accurately capture Board and/or management strategy sessions?
  • Do you want someone to take over total meeting organisation including calling for agenda items, collating the reports and papers, finding venues, booking travel and catering, and taking and distributing minutes.

Not everyone can take minutes.  A professional, experienced, impartial Board Secretary / Minute Taker not only takes minutes at formal board meetings,  but also anytime two or more parties are meeting and they need a record of their conversation.

A Board Secretary / Minute Taker can offer the level of independence and confidentiality required for sensitive discussions around redundancies, budgets, staff and other commercial activities. Decisions stay in the room.

Minutes can be formal with resolutions, dot points, action only or a hybrid depending on the requirements. Having someone attend and type up whiteboard strategy session notes can free up valuable time.

Minutes can be taken in person, by tele or video conference or from a recording.  It is not a requirement for the Board Secretary to be in the room.  It is also not a requirement for them to have an in-depth knowledge of your business or industry.  A good Board Secretary can pick out the important items to note and what action items need to be captured.

If you think your minutes could, and should, be better it might be time to explore what value an outsourced professional Board Secretary / Minute Taker can bring to your meetings.

Posted: Wed 22 Jul 2020

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