The language of meeting records

Writing a record of a meeting can be more art than science. That is, you have to be able to write in an impartial style even if the discussion itself was heated and emotionally charged. These records include the names of speakers and it is important to remain respectful and deferential to the meeting participants. Consider that many of the readers of this record will be the very participants in the discussion. Also, it is standard practice at the ILO that these records are respectful to the participants and the spirit of dialogue.

The skill in writing this type of record is in getting the essence of the discussion rather than capturing all the fine (and sometimes irrelevant) details. Your diplomacy and tact are required for this type of writing. Your summary of someone’s input to the meeting will not reveal that the individual in question blathered on unnecessarily for 45 minutes after making his or her key point. Nor will you be able to divulge the qualitative differences between the contributions of the participants. While you yourself may have had a difficult time simply trying to understand a speaker’s point, your reader should not have to suffer the same trials and tribulations. At the same time, your writing cannot hope to capture the rhetorical effect of a particularly gifted speaker. Ultimately, you have to make the entire discussion readable and comprehensible. This is one of the great differences between reading a report and merely listening to or viewing a recording of it.

Your contribution, therefore, is crucial to creating an effective document. You have the job of not only making some individuals more easily understood but also of giving some unity to a document that is the product of many voices.