<P> Minutes may be created during the meeting by a typist or court reporter, who may use shorthand notation and then prepare the minutes and issue them to the participants afterwards . Alternatively, the meeting can be audio recorded, video recorded, or a group's appointed or informally assigned secretary may take notes, with minutes prepared later . Many government agencies use minutes recording software to record and prepare all minutes in real - time . </P> <P> Minutes are the official written record of the meetings of an organization or group . They are not transcripts of those proceedings . Using Robert's Rules of Order Newly Revised (RONR), the minutes should contain mainly a record of what was done at the meeting, not what was said by the members . The organization may have its own rules regarding the content of the minutes . </P> <P> For most organizations or groups, it is important for the minutes to be terse and only include a summary of the decisions . A verbatim report (transcript) is typically not useful . Unless the organization's rules require it, a summary of the discussions in a meeting is neither necessary nor appropriate . </P> <P> The minutes of certain groups, such as a corporate board of directors, must be kept on file and are important legal documents . Minutes from board meetings are kept separately from minutes of general membership meetings within the same organization . Also, minutes of executive sessions may be kept separately . Committees are not required to keep formal minutes although less formal notes may be taken . For committees, their formal records are the reports submitted to their parent body . </P>

What are the contents of minutes of meeting