What is Notice, Agenda and Minutes?

It is imperative to use and issue the notices and agendas to the all participants of a particular meeting. The company secretary is the in charge who is entitled to issue the notice and agenda to the participants of the meeting. He needs to design the notice as per the instructions that are issued by the director or the chairpersons. He has to make sure that the notice is being circulated to all the members who are going to attend the meeting to know the purpose of the meeting and its where about within the time. The notice and agenda are designed on the same page generally. Notice is normally a formal invitation to the directors, shareholders and other members that are entitled to come to the meeting to attend it. It contains the date, place and the timings of the meeting. In the common companies act, minimum twenty-one days are required to arrange a general body meeting. The notice is served to the every participant of the meeting whether it is the member or director. The notice must be served in the stipulated time and the members should be supplied a sufficient amount of the time to be ready for the meeting by arranging their documents and the matter to be discussed at the meeting. The notice must bear certain things that are essential part of it.

It should mention the nature of the meeting whether meeting that is going to be held is board meeting, annual general meeting etc. it should clearly mention the date, time and place of the meeting. It should be given to all the participants of the meetings through proper post. The notice must be sent on stipulated time as the notice sent after the expiry of time is of no use as the person will not be able to attend the meeting otherwise. It must be unconditional and absolute in the nature. The other necessary element needed in an organization is the agenda while arranging a meeting. The agenda includes the list of the items that are needed to be discussed in the meeting. It is just a official out line of the contents of the meeting that is going to be held. It contains the things that are meant to be discussed in the meeting in a chronically order. Agenda is issued as an annexure to the notice. There are number of things to be kept in mind while drafting an agenda. The nature of the meeting and the name of company should be clearly mentioned in the agenda. The order of the meeting should also be discussed in the agenda. The routine matter and then important matters are necessary to be mentioned in the agenda. The agenda must be specific and clear. It should not be too lengthy and should be precise in nature. It should be given to all the participants of the meeting within the stipulated time. The minutes are official records of the discussions held and the decisions taken at the meeting. They consist of the discussions, recommendations, conclusions reached and actions decided. They do not comprise of the emotions or the feelings shown by any member of the meeting. Minutes are just the official record of the things that happened in the meeting. As per the act of the companies, every company needs to maintain a proper record of the minutes of the meeting that is done by that company. The minutes are recorded after the meeting has taken place.

These minutes are read out loudly in order to the get the approval and agenda for the next meeting. The minutes of the last meeting decides the things to be discussed at the next meeting. If there is no objection raised in the announcement of the minutes of the meeting it is signed by the chairperson of the organization for the approval. The verified and signed minutes are the evidence of the meeting that has taken place. Minutes should be written clearly, concisely and correctly. The notes should be taken for the proceedings and the afterward consulted in the end of the meeting. There are different kinds of the minutes. They can be minutes of the narration or the minutes of the resolution. In the minutes of the narration, the brief discussion is recorded that results in taking a resolution. In minutes of resolution only decision and resolution arrived at the meeting are recorded. They start with the word ‘resolved’. The minutes of the meeting should clear and it must contain time, date and place of the meeting. There should also be a list of the members who were participating in the meeting along with the list of the members who were absent. Each minute should be in the serial order and provided with the heading in order to give a quick reference. The minutes should not be consisted of the personal emotion or the feelings of any member of the meeting who participated in the meeting. The tone of the minute should be impersonal. The notes of the meeting should be recorded and the minutes of the meetings should be made ready immediately after that and the approval of everyone must be there with the minutes of the meeting as it is the only proof of the meeting and the discussion that took place in it. The minutes of the meeting should be verified, modified and approved in the meeting that take place subsequently. The onus of proving the contents of minutes to be false is based on the persons who is challenging the minutes of the meeting. It depends whether the person who is disagree with minutes of the meeting was the participant of the meeting or not. Minutes hence form the special type of the summary that holds the complete discussion of the happening in the meeting and the conclusions that were taken during the meeting. The minutes if the meeting helps to decide the agenda for the next meeting that is due to take place in the future.