Minutes are essential to the efficient running of any organisation and can even be a legal necessity, but finding someone to take on this vital task is not always easy, which is why virtual minute taking makes sense.

Why is minute taking important?

Minute taking is a record of a company or organisation’s plan of action and progress. The decisions that matter and shape a business’s future approach or response to problems will be taken in a meeting.

While those discussions that take place in meetings will be constructive and informative, without a written record of what was discussed and agreed upon these can all too easily be forgotten or overlooked.

Rather than taking a verbatim note of every detail of a meeting, good minutes will be an accurate and detailed account of the main considerations.

Recording who was present at the meeting is important for accountability and that the main points that were discussed in line with the agenda.

The main purpose of meeting minutes though is to document decisions taken and the actions and tasks that support this along with the timeframe and any relevant dates.

Importantly this then needs to be written up and distributed in a short space of time to ensure these actions are put into practice.

What about virtual minute taking?

The purpose of virtual minute taking serves the same purpose, but the difference is the way the minutes are taken.

Virtual minute taking will usually be carried out by a virtual PA or another person from outside of the company.

Where staffing demands make allocating a person to take minutes difficult virtual minute taking is the solution.

A virtual PA can come to the office to take minutes in person then submit these via email afterwards.

Alternatively virtual minute taking could see a virtual PA dial into a meeting and take minutes from your meeting in their own office, saving on travel time. This form of virtual minute taking is particularly useful in virtual meetings where several parties are dialling into a meeting.

Virtual minute taking could also be carried out from a recording of a meeting as long as the participants are happy to be recorded. As well as having comprehensive minutes from a meeting this method provides a verbatim record of the meeting.

With more companies choosing to conduct their business virtually using home-based workers or where key decision-makers are based on different sites, dial-in virtual minute taking is a necessity.

Having the skills to take excellent minutes as well as the technological means to do so is important, which makes using a virtual PA to provide virtual minute taking a good choice.

For a fast, efficient and secure virtual minute taking service contact New Dawn PA.