Page 219 - Effective group discussion theory and practice by Adams, Katherine H. Brilhart, John K. Galanes, Gloria J

202 Chapter 8

FIGURE 8.1 A discussion leader’s personal notes

meetings, especially of decisions made. The leader is responsible for seeing that min-
utes are recorded, that they are accurate, and that they are distributed to members
before the next meeting. An original copy of all minutes should be kept in a safe place
as a permanent record of the group’s work.
Minutes are legal documents for the group. One of us served on the board of a
community theater whose minutes describing an ad hoc personnel review contained
evidence defending the theater in a former employee’s lawsuit for being fired arbi-
trarily. Lacking this record, the theater probably would have lost the suit.
Minutes prevent wasted time and unnecessary tension. Without them, members
often forget important information, fail to complete assignments, or argue about what
was decided. For instance, at one meeting of the Community Report Card group, a
member questioned why a particular topic was to be included in one section; he thought
it should be included in a different section. Maureen referred to the minutes of the meet-
ing (which he had missed) where this topic was discussed and decided. That satisfied
the member (and also reminded him to read the minutes more carefully in the future).
Minutes focus on the content, not the process of discussion. They record all
task-oriented information shared during the meeting, all ideas proposed as solutions,

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