Definition of
Minutes
Minutes It is a concept that comes from the Latin language and that can be used with reference to different types of documents. The first meaning mentioned by the dictionary of the Royal Spanish Academy (RAE) alludes to written record of what was discussed or approved in an assembly, a meeting or another type of meeting.
For example: “I need to find the minutes of the last shareholders meeting: I want to know if the agreement with the Chinese government was approved by all or not”, “The club’s board of directors stated in the minutes of the meeting that the institution has not yet received the subsidy promised by the authorities”, “Before leaving, gentlemen owners, please do not forget to sign the minutes”.
An act, in this sense, allows certify and validate what has been treated. It is a formal resource, which is used in meetings called through legal mechanisms. Typically these documents are kept in a record book. In this way, the minute book of a club, to cite a case, is made up of the minutes of the different member meetings.
There are numerous official meetings that require a record to be drawn up, such as a municipal plenary session in a town hall or a faculty. Be that as it may, it must be taken into account that said document is prepared by the secretary and that it must contain a series of relevant data:
-The day, place and date on which the act in question takes place.
-The list of names and surnames of the people who attend the appointment.
-The time at which the meeting starts.
-In it, it is also essential that the interventions of each and every one of the members that participate are collected.
-As is logical, no less important is that the minutes will have to include all the decisions and agreements that have been made. In this sense, it is relevant to emphasize that it must be perfectly recorded how the vote took place, what each person voted for and, of course, with the majority that the agreement in question was reached.
-The proposals that are also raised in the meeting must also be registered as well as any type of incident that could occur during the course of it.
-To finish, the time at which the meeting was concluded must be established and it must also carry the pertinent signatures.
-Once the minutes are drawn up, mainly in the case of city council plenary sessions, a copy will be delivered to the representatives of the political parties so that they can approve it or request changes.
The record is also the certificate official of certain events or events: “They still haven’t given me the death certificate”, “According to the birth certificate found by the investigators, the writer was born on March 4, 1876 in Caracas”, “To request the credit, I must present my identity document, the marriage certificate and the last salary receipt”.
Some treaties and agreements can receive the denomination of act, as the Single European Act (which marked the birth of the European Union) and the Act of Union between Denmark and Iceland (subscribed in 1918).