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INSTITUT PENGURUSAN TENTERA DARAT CAWANGAN TUGAS STAFF SD/ADMIN/22 AGENDA AND MINUTE OF MEETING Reference: A. Armed Forces Staff Manual, Chapter 6.

INTRODUCTION 1. Any staff must be prepared to act as secretary at meeting. His duties may be divided into two parts, the organization of the meeting and the writing of minute. 2. An agenda is issued is before a meeting so that representatives attending the meeting can collect the necessary information and insert out their ideas. 3. The minute of a meeting provide a record written of decision made, the argument leading to the decision and the action required. READING 4. This prcis is to be read in conjunction with Reference A. The example necessary have been extracted from the armed Forces Staff Manual and attached as Annexes to this prcis. Students are also advised to read Annex E, techniques of conducting a meeting and responsibilities. AGENDA 5. An agenda must be carefully thought out so that items are complete, relevant and arranged in a logical order. 6. Where no specific paper is under discussion a short statement of the problem must be necessary under each item heading. Where item refer to papers, which have been previously issued or are attached to the agenda, it is usually sufficient to list the paper. In either case it may be desirable to frame specific question to be resolved by the meeting. MINUTES 7. Minutes must be record all decisions and show clearly who is to take action. Only the essence for important discussion should be record, so that a reader who was not at the meeting can understand the reason for decision taken. In this context, a minute summarized the discussion of a single agenda item.

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RESTRICTED 8. Style. a. A good minute should be: (1) (2) (3) (4) b. Brief. Self- contained. In the main, impersonal. To the extent the discussion allow, decisive.

Brevity can be achieved by: (1) Selectivity. A minute is not a substitute for a verbatim record and should not attempt to reproduce. However you must summaries what every speaker said. Only the essence of the leading discussion to the conclusion should be recorded. (2) Decisive Style. The point selected for inclusion in the minute should be recorded as briefly at as possible. A phrases striking used in the discussion will help to reflect the tone of the meeting. No attempt should be made to set out the course of the arguments as they were by the development speakers as this leads to a diffuse style.

c. A minute should normally be self-contained, so that is intelligible without reference to other documents. d. To the fullest extent practicable, a minute should be impersonal, i.e, it should not attribute views to persons. This makes for brevity and tends to avert requests for amendments to the minutes. It applies particularly to points raised in discussion. e. The minute should be as crisp and decisive as it can be made. This is special important for the conclusion but it applies also to the record for the discussion. 9. Structure. a. The first purpose of a minute is to setout the decision reached so that those who have to taken action will know precisely what they have to do. The second is to state the problem and to give the reason why the decision to reached. A minute should, therefore, fall clearly into three parts: (1) (2) Brief statement of the problem. Essence of discussion. 2 RESTRICTED

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(3)

Decision.

b. To produce good minute it is necessary first to decide the decision to be recorded and then the essential points in discussion leading to these decisions. 10. Brief Statement of the Problem. The minute should begin by recording the subject or document under discussion. Next, the problem for decision should be set out. The also purpose of this opening statement is to make the record of the subsequent discussion intelligible without reference to other document; if this cannot be achieved in a few lines, a summary should be attempted. 11. Essence of Discussion. a. The minute, after stating the problem for decision was reached.

b. As has already been noted, this part of the minute should be impersonal. This helps to weld together the logical development of the argument into short statement and avoids giving the misleading impression that the discussion was carried on solely the form A said . B replied .C than pointed out There are, of course, occasion on which it is necessary to attribute view to persons. An example is where a speaker reserves his position or registers dissent. It does not follow that, whenever opinion is divided, there may sometimes be special reasons for doing so, but as rule it is preferable to make an impersonal record on these line: On this question views differed. Some members felt that .. Other took the views that. c. Discard the irrelevant and unessential. Much said in discussion need not be recorded and much that was relevant to a certain stages in the discussion may be ret respect, be found unnecessary to the decision eventually reached. Look at the decision and arrange the points in the logical order in which they lead up to it. 12. Decision. a. A minute should end with decision it is clear and precise. The chairman will often sum up the discussion and indicate the decision reached, but if has not done so it is duty of the secretary to draft a set decision, which impress the sense of the meeting. b. Where action required, the decision must place the responsibility firmly upon those who are to carry it out. c. Decision is normally set out at the end of the minute. If, however, the minute of falls naturally into a number of different section, the decision can be interspersed with the record of the discussion instead of being brought together at the end of the minute. 3 RESTRICTED

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13. Shortened Minute. On occasion, particular lower levels, it is necessary to record only the decision taken in the meeting. The chairman should rule when the shortened form of minutes will suffice. 14. Issues of Minute. a. Secretarial notes taken during a meeting should be transcribed while the meeting is fresh in the mind. The draft minute are normally approved by the chairman to whom they should be submitted within 48 hours of the close of the meeting. The minute then immediately issued to those present at the meeting, departments represented and any others concerned. b. Agreement to the minutes can be confirmed as the first action at the next meeting. Alternatively, a covering note can be attached to the minutes indicating that agreement will be assumed unless amendments are forwarded by a given date. Annexes: A. B. C. D. Examples of an Agenda. Examples of an Extract of minute of a meeting. Examples of an Extract of shortened minute of a meeting. Layout of minutes of meeting.

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