The records of board meetings are an important basis if there are disputes about agreements and decisions. From the start, you should therefore attach great importance to the fact that meaningful board minutes are prepared and available at any time if necessary.
The purpose of the board minutes
Meetings in organizations, regardless of their status, line of business, and size, are held with a certain frequency. They allow you to solve many current problems, take the necessary measures on time to resolve complex issues, determine the company’s development strategy, etc. However, not all meetings are recorded in minutes, which is not a violation of the law. In principle, the company’s management has the right to determine which meetings must be recorded and which can be held without issuing this document.
Board minutes is a document that records all the events at a meeting of employees of the enterprise team. It does not apply to strictly mandatory documents, but it is necessary in some cases. The main function of the board minutes is to record in writing all the tasks, questions, opinions voiced at the meeting, and, most importantly, collective decisions.
Board meeting order
A board meeting requires careful preliminary preparation, which is usually carried out by a responsible officer appointed for this by special order of the director. He collects the necessary documents, writes a list of current issues and pressing problems that need to be resolved, notifies all potential participants of the upcoming meeting, and conducts other preparatory activities.
The board meeting usually has its chairman, who monitors its progress, announces the agenda, and votes. Most often, this is the head of the company, but there may be another employee. At the same time, information about the chairman must be included in the minutes. From the beginning of the meeting, all events taking place are carefully recorded. Moreover, this is done differently: keeping a protocol does not exclude using photo and video recording tools.
After the end of the meeting, the board minutes must be signed by the secretary and the chairman of the meeting, as well as, if necessary, by its participants, who thus confirm that all the information entered into it is correct.
Drawing up a board minutes
The general algorithm for compiling and formalizing minutes deserves the most careful and detailed study by secretaries in charge of office work and managers and specialists organizing corporate governance procedures. Only a properly drawn up and executed protocol can fully ensure the legal force of decisions that are made based on the principle of collegiality.
Today, the law does not provide a strict unified form of meeting minutes so that organizations can draw it up in any form or according to the model approved in the company’s accounting policy. However, certain information must be included:
- document number;
- date of creation;
- name of the company;
- the locality where the company is registered;
- a list of persons present at the meeting (with the inclusion of their positions and full names);
- data on the chairman of the meeting and the secretary;
- agenda (i.e., those issues that need to be addressed);
- the fact of voting and its results;
- the outcome of the meeting.
Additional documents, photos, and video evidence can be attached to the meeting minutes if necessary. If there are any, their presence should be reflected in the meeting minutes as a separate item.