Meeting Minutes – Top Tips to Running a Board of Directors Meeting

By David Gass Platinum Quality Author

David Gass is President and Founder of Business Credit Services. He is author of "Success Steps to Business Credit", "Success Steps to Business Financing" ...

One of the requirements of maintaining incorporated status is to hold meetings of the Board of Directors of the corporation and to keep meeting minutes. For many business owners this can be arduous task since they do not have the necessary skills or experience in preparing meeting meetings. Some simple suggestions may help with this task that can be used for preparing corporate meeting minutes or records of a meeting of any kind.

The items that must be included in meeting minutes are a record of who attended the meeting, the date and time of the meeting, the name of the chair or person leading the meeting and any major decisions made at the meeting. In the case of corporate meetings it is also important to include in the meeting minutes any resolutions which are brought forward for discussion.

Another thing that helps the preparation of meeting minutes is to have an agreed upon written agenda for the meeting that is prepared and circulated prior to the meeting being convened. This not only allows for the smooth process at the meeting but it also makes it much easier for whoever is recording the meeting meetings to track and record the meeting decisions.

It is not necessary to record every comment made at a meeting in the meeting minutes. Only the major points of information and decisions are usually sufficient. If there is significant opposition or amendments proposed at the meeting they can and should be part of the meeting minutes even if those views are not with the prevailing majority. Summaries of important discussions are also useful to include in meeting minutes but are not absolutely required.

For corporations it is very important to keep good meeting minutes not just because of the legal requirements but also to keep the corporate history intact. Not having this documentation may create difficulties or liabilities for the officers and Board of Directors of the company and meeting minutes make it much easier for shareholders to view the dealings of the corporation.

Corporations are required by law in most jurisdictions to hold annual shareholder meetings to report to them on the operations of the company. These jurisdictions also specify that there must be meeting minutes from these annual general meetings and to use these meetings to elect or confirm the officers of the corporation. In addition meeting minutes from an annual general meeting should also include any business plans that are adopted, the confirmation of committees that are appointed by the Board, and any merger, acquisition or major decisions that are taken at these meetings.

Good corporate meeting minutes are a sign of a healthy business and since they are certain to be scrutinized by shareholders, investors and financial institutions it is well worth the time and effort to prepare meeting minutes properly.

David Gass is President of Business Credit Services, Inc., founder of http://www.SmallBusinessConsulting.com  and co-developer of the Corporate Manager Software which manages the records of a Corporation or LLC. For a Free Trial of the software visit http://www.corporateforms.net

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