Minute Taking

The first time my boss asked me to take minutes I gulped and the fear took over.  I'm sure many of you can relate and know exactly what I mean.  As I was walking to the boardroom I chattered nervously to him that I hadn't taken minutes since high school.  It ended up being a ploy to get me to the boardroom for a baby shower - Surprise!!! Whew, I had dodged a bullet, but I knew this, I never wanted to take a job that required minute taking.  But fast forward a bit and now I really enjoy taking minutes. So what changed?

Well... I wanted to progress in my career and knew if I was going to do that I would have to learn to take minutes.  There are not many Executive Assistant jobs that don't require minute taking.  In our office all the administrative assistants also have to take minutes. 

I'm the type of person that when I want to do something I learn everything there is about it.  I bugged everyone I knew that had ever taken minutes and gained confidence by talking to them.  I wanted to know what was required of the minute taker, what were the best practices and I needed someone to break it down for me.  I was blogging at the time so interviewed a friend and skilled minute taker for an article I was writing.  Once she explained the basics to me, my reaction was, "Is that all? I could do that."  I have since learned it is a little bit more than I initially thought, but knowing the basics definitely helped and was the start of getting over the fear so I could then start to learn.

I have two upcoming webinars if you would like to join me.  I want to help others get over the fear as well and the way to do that is through education. Having confidence and knowledge is half the battle.

I have changed the format somewhat to concentrate more on the actual minute-taking process, but there is more to minute taking than just taking the minutes.  The more prepared you are the more confident you will be and the minute taking process will be secondary, but you do need to know how to take them as well so I hope to give you some good tips on that.

I look forward to passing on what people have shared with me, what I have learned through my own experiences and from the benefit of having a boss who mentors me through the bumps of learning how to take minutes well. 

I have two upcoming webinars.  One on February 7 and the other on February 15.   I hope you will join me.

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