The origin of meeting minutes is actually very clear. In 1876, a man named Major Henry M. Robert recognized the need for more structured meetings. To help productivity he wrote and published a book titled, Pocket Manual of Rules of Order for Deliberative Assemblies: Roberts Rules of Order. It’s been revised over the years but remains a common meeting guideline source.
Roberts Rules of Order teaches that the business of an organization is conducted with structure, discussion, and the voting of motions. Meeting minutes are an official recording of your organization’s meeting. Using this format, meeting minutes are directed to focus on the content of a meeting and the outcomes of votes on motions.
Do We Need Meeting Minutes for Our Parent Teacher Group?
This record is a great way to keep track of decisions, accomplishments, and gives insight into how your PTA, PTO, or Booster Club is run. Aside from the benefits, if your organization is a PTA, filed or planning to file as a 501(c)(3) with the IRS, recording your proceedings with meeting minutes is required.
How to Write Meeting Minutes
You don’t have to worry about writing every comment made, the purpose of your this is not to have script of what was said, but instead to only track the most important points discussed in your meetings.
Recording Minutes for a Meeting
The responsibility of recording minutes falls onto the Secretary of your Parent Teacher Group. You may be asking, “meetings don’t happen nice and neat, how do I write minutes in an organized format?” There are two ways we suggest you record your meeting minutes.
- Write notes as the meeting progresses—chronologically. Take note of information such as topics in the chart above. This will require you to organize your notes rather thoroughly afterward. This is an easy way to take notes, however, it may not be such an efficient way to stay organized.
- Use a meeting minutes template page. Print out, or have handy on your computer, template pages to keep your notes organized. This will allow you to write your notes in a more logical manner. Afterward, they may still need to be polished up, but you won’t have to rearrange your notes as intensively.
Saving Your Minutes
Minutes will only become official once they are approved. How do they become approved? Once you have cleaned up your meeting minutes, you’ll want to take them to your next PTA, PTO, or Booster Club meeting. There, at the beginning of the meeting, they will be approved or corrected if members motion for a correction.
Once approved you can now safely filed in your organization’s procedure book.
AIM is here to help your organization succeed. Check out our other blogs for fundraising inspiration, tips, PTA, PTO, and Booster Club guidance, and more!