Creating and Viewing Meeting Minutes

OnBoard gives its Administrators the flexibility to create Meeting Minutes easily and make them visible to meeting attendees through a variety of methods. Here's how!

Viewing Available Meeting Minutes

Viewing from the Meeting:

As a Meeting Attendee, you'll be able to see any meeting minutes created by the meeting's admin by navigating directly to the meeting from the Calendar page. Open the meeting's details and click View Minutes.

If your Admin has given you the ability to export/download items from the meeting, you'll see the Options menu available shown in the screenshot above. This can be used to download a copy of the meeting minutes for your records.

Viewing from the Resource Library:

Depending on how your Administrator chooses to organize available meeting minutes created from the Meeting Minute Tool inside OnBoard, you may also be able to view them from the Resource Library. Navigate to Resources from the main navigation and select the folder your Administrator has indicated. (The name and location of this folder will likely be different for each organization).

Creating Meeting Minutes in OnBoard

You must be the Meeting's Administrator to create/edit the Minutes for the Meeting. (Meeting Admins only. Contributors cannot manage the minutes.) To begin, navigate to the meeting's detail page and click Start Minutes

You'll be presented with two options: Start from Scratch or Start from a Copy of the Agenda. We anticipate most organizations using the Start from a Copy of the Agenda option to get a good portion of the minutes organization pre-populated. However, feel free to use the option that best represents your needs. 

When clicking Get Started from the "Start from a Copy of the Agenda" option, your full agenda will be brought into the minutes builder for you to expand upon. (Important Note: When clicking Start from a Copy of the Agenda", your meeting minutes will capture a snapshot of what is currently created in your meeting agenda. This is not a live-updating list, meaning that if your meeting agenda is changed, the meeting minutes will not reflect that change.)

Using the "Start from Scratch" option creates a blank canvas for you to begin curating your meeting minutes without the Agenda present. 

Editing Meeting Minutes

Once you've clicked to Get Started in either of the options mentioned above, you'll transition to the following screen.  Click Edit Minutes in the upper right corner to switch from the View to the Edit screen. Take note that immediately after the Minutes are created, they're visible only to other Administrators of the meeting. Use the dropdown menu shown below to make the minutes visible to Readers. 

Adding Minute Blocks

Use the blue + button throughout the Minutes Builder to create new Minute Blocks wherever you need them. There are many different Minute Block types that can be used to fill different requirements.

Add Note

Perhaps the most common of Minute Blocks is the Note Block. This block is a simple text editor that allows you to type your notes directly into the minutes. Use the toolbar to create ordered/bulleted lists, hyperlinks, and change the font formatting.

Add Motion

The Add Motion Block can be used whenever motions are moved and seconded during the meeting. With this Minute Block, indicate a brief description of what is being called, who made the movement and who seconded the motion, along with the result. (This Block does not interact with OnBoard's Approvals feature.)

Add Task

The Task Block is used to generate and record action items that come from the meeting. When placed on the Minute Builder, the Add Task block will need a brief description, an optional assignee and an optional due date. When filled out, a new task will be created and visible in the Tasks main menu navigation. The Administrator who created this task will be added as the Viewer, and it will automatically be linked to the meeting of origin.

Add Discussion Topic

This Block can be used to alter the automatic numbering of the Agenda that has been brought into the Minutes tool. This does NOT alter the actual Meeting Agenda, only what is visible from within the Minutes Builder. This will commonly be used if creating your Minutes from Scratch, rather than creating from an existing meeting agenda. Or, to be used when conversations deviate from the pre-existing agenda.

Add Admin-Only Note

Private notes can be created in the meeting minutes with the Admin-Only Note. 

Add Meeting Header Block

This is another block that will commonly be used when starting from scratch. This block will display information about the meeting such as meeting name, organization name, meeting date, and location. Any of these aspects can be removed by clicking the Options icon to the right of the block and selecting Edit Header Display Settings.

Add Attendance 

This block is handy for taking attendance or performing a roll-call at the beginning of each meeting. When the block is added to the minutes builder, users who have already been given access to the meeting will appear in the list for you to mark as Absent, Present, or Attending Remotely. New Members and New Guests can be added by clicking the + Buttons to the right of each respective category. Doing so does not alter the meeting's permissions.  A new category of attendees, such as Speakers, or Presenters can be created from this panel's Options menu. Select the options menu to the right of the panel and click Add Custom Attendance List.

Minute Options Menu

The Meeting Administrator can use the Options menu (either from the Meeting Details page, or from the Minute Builder tool) to publish, or notify users of the changes to the minutes. 

Notify Meeting Invitees

With this option, we'll be able to customize an alert to send to our meeting invitees, letting them know that the minutes are now available for viewing, that there has been an update to them, or to keep them in the loop of any other change. 

Add to Resources

Once you're ready to publish your meeting minutes, this option can be used to easily place a copy directly into an existing Resource folder. Choose from PDF, Word, or a hyperlink that directs users back to the Meeting Minute Page.

Finalize Minutes

Place your minutes in a finalized state, meaning they can no longer be edited. Though, they can still be exported to PDF/Word, or placed into the Resource Library. In the Finalized state, the minutes can also be deleted. 

Download PDF/Word Documents

Converts your minutes into a downloadable PDF or Microsoft Word document, and exported for your records. This option will be disabled if the Administrator has chosen to disable the download feature for your meeting. 

Delete Minutes

This will completely delete the minutes for this meeting. This is a permanent and un-recoverable action. Once deleted, they will be gone entirely and must be recreated. 

OnBoard Group Trainings:

If you are interested, we do offer further education. You can find the calendar and register for OnBoard Minutes Builder group training sessions by clicking here.