The purpose of minutes

You should write minutes so that someone who was not at the meeting can follow the decisions that were made. A variety of people external to the board or committee will read minutes, not just the colleagues who were there.

You are creating the permanent formal record or the 'memory' of the University.

Minutes can be used in external audits and legal proceedings. They should give an accurate, impartial and balanced record of the meeting. They should be clear and concise, so use short sentences.

The secretary should:

• always double-check facts, figures, dates and names to avoid errors
• include all decisions or recommendations, not all the discussion
• only use given names of individuals where necessary, e.g. where an action is needed, or a special contribution is made or to record any particularly strong or dissenting views

How to format minutes

Use the minutes template.

Minutes numbering should run on consecutively from one year to another, so each number is unique. If the numbers start again each year, the meetings must have a unique number or date reference.

You should use a standard format and number all paragraphs. Write minutes in the order of the agenda, even if the actual discussion happened out of order. Lay the minutes out clearly so actions stand out to readers.

Number the pages using the format '1 of 4'.

Language to use when writing minutes

Using the right tone of voice

Use reported speech when writing minutes and always use the past tense. Use the conditional tense, i.e: 'would' instead of 'will' and 'should' rather than 'shall' to show future action. Don't say 'The Chair thinks the policy needs changing', say 'The Chair thought the policy needed changing'.

Use the active voice, e.g. ' The committee agreed the minutes', rather than the passive, 'The minutes were agreed by the committee'.

Words and phrases to use

Use 'the previous day' or 'the following day', rather than 'yesterday' or 'tomorrow'. Use the phrase 'after discussion, it was RESOLVED that...' if many points were made which do not require minuting.

When referring to University Officers in minutes, use their role, e.g. 'the Dean' rather than their name, except in the attendance and apologies sections. 'The committee' is singular (as a collective) and not plural (i.e. use 'it' not 'they').

Committees RECEIVE and CONSIDER papers to reports, which they may formally NOTE, APPROVE or RECOMMEND action on to a superior committee. They may formally RESOLVE that something be ACCEPTED or ADOPTED, may REPORT the decisions made to another body and, less frequently, REFER BACK a paper should they not agree with what was PROPOSED.

Writing a 'resolved' paragraph

If the committee papers have been clearly written, a 'recommendation' paragraph can easily be used to become a 'resolved' paragraph. Make it clear that the committee has agreed to the minutes of the previous meeting or, if amendments were agreed, specify these in the minutes, e.g:

'The minutes of the previous meeting on 1 January 2014 were agreed, subject to the following minor amendment: Minute 205: addition of Professor J Bloggs in the list of those present.'

Make it clear when the committee has made a decision and when it will take effect, e.g:

'RESOLVED that the updated Criminal Convictions Policy be approved, with effect from September 2014.'

Make it clear when the committee is recommending an action to its higher committee where it does not have the power to make the decision itself, e.g:

'AGREED to recommend amendments to the terms of reference for the new Assessments sub-committee, as outlined in document S13/14-11, to Council for approval.'

Refering to relevant papers

Refer to the relevant paper number when minuting an item, and make it clear that it is noted on any papers for information, e.g:

• 'RECEIVED AND NOTED paper S13/14-11'
• 'RECEIVED AND NOTED the minutes of the Academic Programmes Committee on 9 March 2014, paper S13/14-12'

Minuting 'noted' information

Make it clear when the committee has simply noted some information, e.g:

'NOTED: that the University's recruitment figures were healthy and that the University would meet its target numbers.'

Minuting negative statements

If you need to minute a negative statement, make sure that it is clear wherever possible how the issue is being addressed, e.g an example of poor practice is:

'Professor Bloggs and Dr Difficult said that they had never agreed with the recent changes to the assessment rules and that the University was going to pot.'

This could be better phrased as:

'The committee noted that there had been some isolated issues with the implementation of the new assessment rules in one department, and a working group had been set up to analyse the issues and report back to the next meeting with recommendations for any proposed actions.'

Recording reserved area business

Separate the minutes into sections headed 'Open' and 'Reserved area business'.

Anyone can ask the University to release any information under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (FOIA). Requests for information are handled by the University's Freedom of Information Officers on a case by case basis.

Contact the Head of Governance or the Freedom of Information Officers if you have any queries.

Read more about confidentiality and reserved business.

Approving Minutes

Once you have written the minutes of the meeting they will need to be approved and there are a number of steps in this process you should follow:

1) Clearly mark the set of minutes as 'draft', either in the header or using a watermark

2) Send the draft minutes to the Chair asking for their agreement that they are a correct record of the meeting or if they have any suggested amendments you can make. Once agreed, you need to clearly mark them as 'unconfirmed' in the header or the watermark and save as a separate copy.

3) The unconfirmed minutes should be circulated to any other relevant committees or groups your committee reports its activities to before they next meet. Marking them 'unconfirmed' makes it clear that the minutes have been agreed but are awaiting approval by the full committee.

4) Circulate the unconfirmed minutes to the committee at its next meeting for approval or suggested amendments. The agenda should always have an item within introductory business where the previous meeting's minutes are approved. If any members have amendments, these should be recorded in the next set of minutes and the minutes under discussion should be amended to create the final, approved version. Remember to clearly mark that they are an 'approved' set of minutes in the header or watermark.

5) Record that the minutes have been approved on your Register of minutes for annual signing document in readiness for signing by the Chair at the end of the year. If your committee publishes its minutes on the web, they can now be published.