Effective Minutes Writing – Notes, Notations and Nuances (incorporating AI)

Four people sit at a table in an office, working on laptops and writing in notebooks, with large windows in the background.

Too long, too short. Too detailed, too brief. Common frustration from chairpersons and bosses who wonder why their minute-taker just can’t seem to scribe the nice and nuanced touch. This is particular so in the dynamic yet sensitive environment of an organisation where AI technology are an additional dimension to consider, and control.

Some meetings run long enough to fill pages of meaningless minutes. Others are short, yet important comments get left out. In one compact day, this workshop shows you how to write minutes with confidence and clarity, without losing accuracy or professionalism.

Confusion over past and present tenses, reported speech and attribution and a host of meeting madness will be dealt with using real examples and samples. Minutes need not be boring even if meetings are!

And because you come from a sizeable agency, the needs to prepare a meeting well; understand the atmospherics at a meeting; and follow-up duties after the discussion become a key concern for many note takers. This workshop will address all of these issues and provide useful ‘hacks’ to short-cut the tedious process.

Course Objectives

At the end of the one-day workshop, participants will be able to:

  • appreciate the concerns of chairpersons and members;
  • avoid common errors and blind spots; and
  • write minutes that are clear and concise, using AI prompts
Course Outline

“Just a minute!”

The Qualities of a Minute-taker:

  • before the meeting
  • during the meeting
  • after the meeting

The Qualities of Minutes:

  • AI Prompting
  • resolution notetaking
  • action notetaking
  • narrative notetaking

The Qualities of the Systems Approach

            – Practice with Content

            – Practice with Structure

            – Practice with Format

            – Practice with Language

“It’s a wrap!”

Training Methodology

Practical tips, techniques and pointers, “hands on” practical minute recording workshop, visually stimulating sessions, group discussions and checklists.

Who Should Attend

Staff who take notes in briefings, or who write the minutes of meetings.

About The Trainer

A man in a suit and tie posing for a photo.

Dr Sunny Goh is a Trainer of Trainers (TOT) and has taught many writing coaches to teach writing programmes he has designed for government servants and private sector officers. He was head of the International directorate in Mindef’s Defence Policy Office, where he has written Cab Memos, budget papers and presented Singapore’s position at international fora. He was a member of the SAF Scholars Selection Board and chairman of a university’s Resource Panel.

He was also a Desk Editor at The Straits Times, where he taught reporting and interviewing skills at its School of Journalism. In all, his participants had included CEOs, professors, staff writers, technical specialists, undergraduates and students. It doesn’t matter how high a participant’s work status may be – all that mattered is a penchant for learning.

As a volunteer, he was a Mediator with the Ministry of Law, a Council Member of the Singapore Red Cross Society and writes regularly for the local and regional media.