It is the secretary’s job to take minutes at the meeting. If the secretary is not present, then the chairperson should ask someone else at the meeting to take minutes. Minutes are an important way of keeping a record of what decisions were taken at a meeting.

After the meeting the minutes must be typed or written up neatly in a minute book. A copy should be given or sent to all the committee members.

At the beginning of the next meeting, the secretary reads out the minutes of the previous meeting. The main purpose of this is to note corrections and ‘matters arising’: those matters that the previous meeting decided must be finalised or discussed in this meeting, and tasks that people had to do.