Notices, Agendas and Minutes | Grade 10

 A necessary ability in any business student is the ability to write up essential office documents like the ones listed in the heading.

Notices:

What is Notice Writing? - A notice is a written or printed announcement (Example - a notice for sale). It is written in order to inform a large number of people about something that has happened or is about to happen.
It could be an upcoming event, competition, Lost, and found notice or just a piece of information to be delivered to the targeted audience. It is generally written in a formal tone.
Notices are factual and to-the-point. The language used is simple and formal, not flowery. They are put up on display boards in schools or in public places.

The Notice Writing Format should include NAME OF THE INSTITUTION / ISSUING AUTHORITY / NOTICE / TITLE, DATE, and WRITER’S NAME WITH DESIGNATION.

A notice should contain all the necessary details such as:

1. Name of the issuing agency (school, etc)
2. Date of issue/release of the notice
3. Title/Subject of the Event (what?)
4. BODY-Date/time/duration/Place/Venue (when and where?)
5. Authorised signatory: Name and signature (contact details)

Agendas

Meetings are an essential part of effective team collaboration – but we've all been in meetings that were a complete waste of everyone's time. The participants would come unprepared, the discussion would get side-tracked, and hours would go by with no decisions made.

What is a team meeting agenda?

A meeting agenda is a list of activities that participants are hoping to accomplish during their meeting. It serves several purposes:

1. It gives the attendees prior notice of what will be discussed.
2. It sets clear expectations for what needs to occur before and during a meeting.
3. It keeps the participants focused on the topic at hand.
4. It sets the pace of the meeting.
5. It acts as a time management tool.

When designed correctly, a meeting agenda can prevent unproductive meetings, saving your entire team a lot of time. Whether your meeting is a large, formal event, or a casual discussion in a small team, an agenda is the best way to stay focused and make good use of the time you have.

Minutes

What are meeting minutes?

Meeting minutes, or MOM (for minutes of meeting) can be defined as the written record of everything that's happened during a meeting. They're used to inform people who didn't attend the meeting about what happened, or to keep track of what was decided during the meeting so that you can revisit it and use it to inform future decisions. 

To write effective meeting minutes you should include:

• Meeting name and place
• Date and time of the meeting
• List of meeting participants
• Purpose of the meeting
• For each agenda items: decisions, action items, and next steps
• Next meeting date and place
• Documents to be included in the meeting report

Tips that might help your note taking:

    Create an outline – as discussed earlier, having an outline (or template) based on the agenda makes it easy for you to simply jot down notes, decisions, etc. under each item as you go along. If you are taking notes by hand, consider including space below each item on your outline for your hand-written notes, then print these out and use this to capture minutes.

    Check-off attendees as they enter the room - if you know the meeting attendees, you can check them off as they arrive, if not have folks introduce themselves at the start of the meeting or circulate an attendance list they can check-off themselves.

    Record decisions or notes on "action items" in your outline as soon as they occur to be sure they are recorded accurately.

    Don’t try to capture it all – you can’t keep up if you try to write down the conversation verbatim, so be sure to simply (and clearly) write (or type) just the decisions, assignments, action steps, etc.

    Record it – literally, if you are concerned about being able to keep up with note taking, consider recording the meeting (e.g., on your smart phone, iPad, recording device, etc.) but be sure to let participants know they are being recording. While you don’t want to use the recording to create a word-for-word transcript of the meeting, the recording can come in handy if you need clarification.

Sources and further information:

Notices

Agenda

Minutes