Meeting minutes that create accountability
The minutes of Thursday's coordination meeting go out the following Wednesday: four pages, written as a conversation. The fire-stopping subcontractor replies to all, asking which of the fourteen items marked "to be confirmed" are theirs. Two of those items were due yesterday.
Minutes fail when they record the conversation instead of its outcome: who spoke, but not what was decided, who acts next and by when. An action given to "all trades" belongs to nobody. The City of Los Angeles's engineering bureau sets a clear bar: minutes record the items discussed and the decisions made, without bias, and each action carries the name of the person responsible and the date it is to be resolved.
- Number each item and keep the number until it closes: 7.04 is meeting 7, item 4.
- Write decisions as decisions: "Agreed: each trade seals its own penetrations", not "fire stopping discussed". A decision that changes cost, design or time also needs its own decision record.
- Give each action to one named person, with one date, and say who will tell them if they were absent.
- Keep decisions, actions and information apart, so a foreman scanning for their name finds only what they must do.
- Carry open actions forward under their numbers until they close, and record how: "Closed May 14, list received." Track them in the minutes or on the open-items list, not both.
- Send the minutes within one working day, with a deadline for corrections. The Los Angeles procedure allows five calendar days from receipt, and the minutes, amended as needed, are approved at the next meeting.
- Attach what the minutes refer to: the look-ahead and the current RFI and change logs.
Common mistakes
- A transcript: nobody reads four pages to find one action.
- Dates such as "ASAP" or "next week", which never arrive.
- Writing the minutes days later from memory, instead of noting each item as it closes.
- Quietly editing minutes already sent, instead of recording the correction at the next meeting.
Checklist
Before you send the minutes
- Every item numbered; open items carried forward
- Decisions written as decided
- One named person and one date per action
- Decisions, actions and information kept apart
- Closed items marked with how and when
- A deadline for corrections
- Look-ahead and logs attached
- Sent within one working day
Check your understanding
An action reads "Electrical/mechanical to resolve the conflict at gridline 5." What would you change, and why?
