The report is the step that must conclude all your meetings, interviews, or professional discussions: a true summary of the decisions and progress made during them, it must be both clear and concise. But how to write concise and effective reports? All our explanations are below!
A working document
A meeting report is, above all, a working document. It comes after a meeting, a discussion or an important interview during which decisions can be made and acted upon regarding the future of your company or even a municipality. The summary report is very often used for works council and board of directors meetings. Far from being a copy and paste of everything that may have been said, it is in fact a document that is consulted to learn the main points of a meeting and in particular the decisions that may have been made.
It is therefore a reminder, summary, information, and communication document: it must be able to be consulted at any time by someone who was not present during the interview. They must be able to understand the major decisions that may have been taken at that time, but also be informed of the major subjects and themes discussed. It is therefore a document that must be clear, informative, and concise! But what exactly does that mean?
Careful writing
Writing minutes is an exercise that requires a certain amount of practice, especially when you want to do it while following the meeting. This is why committee members often call on an external writer. You have to be able to follow what is happening, record it without forgetting an important event, and be clear in your writing! What must above all be included in all the main information: there is no question here of writing down all the statements and interventions of each person, on the other hand, it is necessary for the topics discussed and the decisions taken to appear.
Synthetic, this also means that your report must be clear and well organized! You must avoid crossing out, but also mixing up information or writing your abbreviations and personal annotations that could be incomprehensible to many. Your document must be clear, clean, and as neutral as possible in its writing so that everyone can understand it and use it in their work: whether it is a partner or a member of the works council or CHSCT absent during the meeting, or someone from outside who wishes to be informed of the decisions!
Entrust the report to a service provider
It turns out that writing minutes has even become a profession in its own right! Some service providers offer the writing of minutes as a service to streamline the operation of your company or committee. Thus, during your meetings, it is no longer necessary to concentrate on both the discussions and the writing, someone takes care of it for you!