Understanding Common Record Types: Minutes

Introduction to minutes

Governance documents containing details of meetings of organisations.

Why they were created

Created to record business discussed and decisions taken at meetings held by various types of organisations.

Who might have created them

Usually created by a secretary appointed by the board, council, committee or working group that held the meeting, who would have been present at the meeting to make the record.

Where you might find them

Usually found as a sequence on their own, or within the working files of executive personnel. Commonly found in the following collections:

• Businesses
• Charities
• Trusts
• Societies
• Political parties
• Campaign groups
• Education establishments
• Parish councils
• Town and City councils, and their predecessor local authority organisations

Period from which they most commonly survive

Survive in large quantities from the early 19th century, although, examples exist from the medieval period.

Key features

Physical features

• Early examples feature manuscript entries made into pre-bound volumes of paper, usually hardbound
• From late-19th century, it is common to find typescript minutes printed on paper and stuck or bound into volumes
• From late-19th century, it is also common to find files of unbound typescript printed minutes
• From late-20th century, start to find digital formats, usually created in Word and saved as a Word document or PDF

Informational content

• Date of meeting
• Place of meeting
• List of attendees
• List of absences
• Acceptance or alterations to previous meeting's minutes
• Business discussed, which varies widely according to the nature and purpose of the organisation holding the meeting
• Decisions made
• Actions taken
• Financial position
• Appointment of members, staff and executive officers
• Updates from officials present
• Proposals for date of next meeting
• Signature of chairman of the meeting to indicate minutes are accepted and official (if no signature is present the minutes are usually draft or copy versions)

Note on critical analysis

Things to consider:

• Minutes record an agreed position on discussions that took place and decisions that were made
• Some details may be omitted if discussions wandered from the key meeting points
• Some details may be redacted for reasons of sensitivity prior to the minutes being circulated more widely
• Signed minutes are written up after a meeting has taken place, and are reconstructed from rough notes made during meetings, usually by a secretary or designated minute-taker
• Depending on who was present, who was invited but could not attend so was updated after the event, and who was only provided with signed minutes, different contemporary groups may have different perspectives on a given issue depending on the level of access to information they were given, and the time that access was given

Potential research uses

Minutes can be useful when undertaking research into the following areas:

• Historical organisational discourse
• Identification of individuals involved with a particular organisation or activity
• History of a particular organisation
• Comparison of approaches of similar types of organisations
• Development of ideas and approaches in a given area of activity, i.e. marketing, fundraising, etc.
• History of a particular movement through the activities of the organisations involved, i.e. peace, anti-fascism, etc.

Specialist skills and knowledge

Further reading in the following areas will help researchers when using these sources:

• Understanding of Secretary writing or mixed Secretary/Italic writing, if using pre-19th century minutes
• Knowledge of pre-decimal currency, if using pre-20th century minutes