Minutes checker

Some groups use the role of minutes checker to ensure the quality of minutes before they are sent to a public archive. A minutes checker may serve as a safety net to a new scribe.

How it works: instead of sending the minutes directly to the proper list, the scribe prepares them and sends them to the minutes checker (a person who was also at the meeting). The minutes checker tries to make sure that the minutes as written will be understandable to someone who was not at the meeting. This may involve looking for unclear wording, missing links or context, too many in-jokes, or just fixing the spelling of names. The minutes checker also checks for completeness and accuracy -- do these minutes reflect the same meeting that she remembers?

In some cases, the minutes checker may also be on the lookout for items that should not be sent to a public archive due to their sensitive nature (e.g. personnel decisions, legal proceedings, etc.). Preserving as much of the relevant sense as possible, these sensitive items should be removed from the public copy of the minutes, though they may be preserved in a copy sent to a closed list.

Since this is an extra step in producing minutes, it is important that the scribe and the minutes checker are both as prompt as possible in executing their roles.