Corporate Meeting: How to Run It and Write Meeting Minutes

When a company is incorporated, it is conferred an identity separate from its owners, making it a legal person. Like most legal persons, the company becomes entitled to several rights, such as the ability to sue or be sued in its name, make investments, and enter binding contracts.

This identity, however, comes with a set of responsibilities. These responsibilities vary depending on subsisting laws in the jurisdiction where the company is based. However, it is common practice for the law to require companies to hold business meetings and keep a record. 

This article will look extensively at how to hold successful corporate meetings and write effective meeting minutes.

What is a corporate meeting?

Corporate or company meetings are statutorily required meetings held by incorporated organizations for their major stakeholders. These business meetings are often attended by the company’s officers, directors, and shareholders to discuss and transact the ordinary or special business of the company. 

According to Law Insider, ordinary business refers to matters discussed and decided during the Annual General Meeting, which is held at least once yearly. They include topics such as the company’s financial statements, recruitment of auditors, the appointment of directors and company officers, and dividend declarations.

Special business, on the other hand, refers to any business other than ordinary business, including business transacted at an extraordinary general meeting.

Why are corporate meetings important?  

Meetings are generally valuable in ensuring alignment within an organization, facilitating decision-making, and building relationships. However, corporate meetings perform other unique and complex functions, including:

• Obtaining Shareholders’ consent

Shareholders are deemed as the owners of a company. Even though they are not a part of the day-to-day running of the company, their input and consent are critical for making important decisions and ratifying the actions of the company’s directors and officers.

Their consent is often obtained through a democratic process where they vote on decisions to be made. 

• Appointment of company’s leadership

The appointment and reappointment of essential members of a company’s leadership, such as directors and auditors, are done in corporate meetings.

The nominated directors and auditors will be presented to the shareholders for a final decision on their candidature. As is in major decisions, the stakeholders have a right to vote for their preferred candidates. 

• Accountability to shareholders

The company’s leadership is often required to give a report of the company’s finances, operations, and key developments during corporate meetings.

Beyond keeping stakeholders aware of the state of the company, the reports ensure that the company’s directors remain transparent and accountable.

Shareholders are also allowed to ask questions and seek clarification on the accounts presented or other issues relating to the company. 

• Review of the company’s operations and goals

Reviews are a major reason corporate meetings are so important. The company’s directors and shareholders can jointly evaluate the company’s trajectory based on its current and previous records, as well as trends in the market, to determine what the following and best line of action for the company is.

The corporate meeting also serves as a valuable opportunity to reiterate the company’s goals.

• Legal compliance

Corporate meetings allow companies to fulfill their legal and fiduciary responsibilities to shareholders and the state. 

They ensure that companies act in good faith and perform their duties with respect to business activities.

Types of corporate meetings

There are several types of corporate meetings. However, for the sake of expediency, we will consider them under three broad headings based on who is required to form the quorum:

• Shareholders meetings

• Board of Directors meetings

• Board committee meetings

Meetings in these categories can be identified by their defining characteristics, such as meeting frequency, business focus, and purpose.

1. Shareholders meeting

A shareholders' meeting is a meeting organized by the shareholders of a company to approve or give their verdict on the board of directors’ actions and decisions.

These meetings also enable shareholders to deliberate on issues and stay in the loop on the state of the company and new developments. 

2. Board of Directors meetings

Board of directors meetings or “board meetings” are expected to be attended by every director in the company. They sometimes also include the company’s CEO or members of its senior management.

Board meetings often include a presentation of reports on the company's affairs in the relevant period. They are usually a chance to review the company’s activities, progress, opportunities, and challenges.

3. Board Committee meetings

These are also known as meetings of the Committees of Directors: A company’s board of directors may decide to create special committees from its members to carry out some of its responsibilities. 

These committees are often charged with special duties such as finance evaluation, strategy planning, investigation, and discipline. 

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How to conduct a successful corporate meeting?

In addition to adhering to meeting best practices, corporate meetings have a set of conditions that must be fulfilled for calling, constituting and running them. Therefore, to conduct a successful corporate meeting, the convener must take note of key directives in law, the articles of association of the company, and best meeting practices.

We have summarized them as follows.

1. Set clear goals for the meeting

The first step in setting clear goals is establishing the purpose of the meeting and determining what you want to achieve. 

It is not unusual for meeting conveners to have several things they hope to achieve in a meeting. However, because the timeframe for holding the meeting is limited, it is advisable to focus on a few important and achievable goals.

If, however, you are unsure about what the goals for the meeting are or should be, you can start by learning about the general purpose of the meeting and what the law requires for it.

When setting your goals, ensure that they are clear and SMART, i.e., Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-Bound. 

2. Confirm conditions for the meeting’s validity

As stated earlier, the law and the company’s articles of association often stipulate conditions for the validity of corporate meetings. Therefore, to hold a successful meeting, you must ensure that all the conditions necessary for its validity are met by confirming what the law requires and complying with them.

When determining the conditions for properly convening the meeting, here are the key considerations:

• The convening authority: They could be the chair of the board of directors, the board itself, or shareholders. 

• The notice period: Anywhere between 10 and 60 days, depending on the meeting type.

• The quorum: It is formed by the people necessary to be at the meeting as required by law.

Lastly, the legal considerations on how to conduct the meeting usually revolve around what the law says about who should preside over the meeting, how deliberations are conducted, and how decisions are arrived at.

3. Make a checklist of all you need for the meeting

In addition to the conditions for valid corporate meetings, there are also various logistical, technical, and material considerations. These could include the meeting venue, video conferencing and meeting management software, necessary documents, attendees list, refreshments, activities, notices, internet connection, office supplies, and a projector.

To avoid preparing inadequately or forgetting what you need for the meeting, create a checklist to ensure that you have all your ducks in a row.

Preparing for a corporate meeting may also involve creating a theme, gathering marketing materials, and determining if there is a need for post-event follow-up resources or activities.

4. Create a meeting agenda 

Having an agenda is non-negotiable. A meeting agenda serves as a meeting guide that, when properly mapped, can keep the meeting organized and help you achieve meeting objectives within a limited time.

The agenda should contain the following details:

• meeting location and date

• name of the person presiding over the meeting

• goals/objectives

• talking points and activities as items on the agenda

• attendee responsible for each item 

• timeframe

You should also share it with other attendees in advance. This keeps all attendees informed of what to expect at the meeting and gives their input where necessary.

5. Send a meeting notice 

There are usually guidelines on when to send a meeting notice to attendees; it is vital to comply with them. 

It is equally important to provide attendees with all the information and documents they need to be aware of in order to prepare adequately and participate in the meeting.

This should include the agenda, venue, details of attendees' responsibilities in the meeting, the required quorum, relevant documents and reports, rules on conduct, and any expectations you have of the attendees. 

Sending the required information without advising the attendees to carefully study them and prepare ahead of the meeting is as good as simply dumping it on them. So, it is advisable to stress the need for careful preparation ahead of the meeting. 

6. Make the meeting engaging 

Even though corporate meetings are expected to be serious business, they do not have to be a boring monologue or only engaging for a few. 

It is important for participants to feel included in the conversation and for the overall meeting to be engaging.

There is no single formula for achieving this. But there are a few things you can do as a convener, such as:

• Using ice-breakers. Instead of jumping right into the business of the day, encourage attendees to engage in casual conversation to help everyone loosen up and become comfortable.

• Ask and encourage questions. A good approach is to direct questions to attendees who are usually quiet. Ask for their thoughts and listen actively. Also, carve out time to allow attendees to ask questions and respond respectfully.

• Making the discussion easy to follow. You can do this by summarizing your entire speech or address into a few main points before proceeding to talk about them in detail. This often requires some practice, so take the time to do that before the meeting.

Beyond these, you should always make attendees feel that they are vital to the conversation and success of the meeting; this is likely to make them feel more interested and better engaged. 

7. Keep to time

Keep your meetings short, organized and to the point. I find that when we keep our meetings to 15 minutes or less, we are more productive, discussing the most important topics first.

• Kristin Kimberly Marquet, Marquet Media, LLC

Your meeting does not have to be lengthy to be successful. On the contrary, you should always aspire to keep your sessions short and productive.

This requires sticking religiously to the agenda's timeframe set for each item and staying within the meeting duration. You should also avoid distractions and keep the meeting on course.

Deliberations, reports, and reviews are usually time sinks, but they are vital parts of corporate meetings. You can prevent them from running for too long by laying down rules for each attendee to speak and make their presentation. 

8. Get feedback and optimize 

Getting feedback on the meeting and what can be improved from the attendees will help you learn their expectations and opinions on the meeting and how you can improve it.

It is also a sure way to expose your blindspots because no matter how critically you think of the meeting and ways to improve it, you do not have the unique perspective of the attendees who are experiencing it differently from you.

Sending a feedback form immediately or within 24 hours after the meeting will help ensure that you have accurate responses while the meeting is still fresh in their minds. 

Take the responses seriously and be sure to apply the feedback in improving subsequent meetings. This might prove difficult, but it is important to make the necessary change to make your corporate meetings better.

What should be included in corporate meeting minutes?

Minutes are written records or official notes of what happened in a meeting. This often includes the issues discussed, individual contributions, deliberations and resolutions.

Every business meeting should have detailed minutes taken. While this is often a statutory requirement for companies, it is also a good record-keeping practice for companies to keep track of their affairs, keep stakeholders who are absent informed and make referring to the meeting at a later time possible. Minutes also serve as evidence that a meeting was convened. 

While the content of the minutes are often defined by the law and/or the company’s standard practice, the following are common and important details:

• Company name

• Title and type of the meeting

• Date and location of the meeting

• Meeting start and adjournment time

• Name of the person chairing the meeting

• Name of the person taking the minutes

• The individuals who are present at the meeting

• Attendees absent and the reason

• Whether the previous minutes were accepted, rejected, or changed in any way

• Statement on whether or not quorum was duly constituted

• Statement on whether or not notice was properly given and attendees who waived notice 

• Reports

• Significant changes to the business

• Issues for discussion, deliberations, and decisions

• Motions

• Any voting actions and how each individual voted

• Decisions that are made

• Appointment of officers

• Signature of the board chairperson and company secretary

It is important to note that this list is not exhaustive. Some items might also need to be revised depending on the nature of the company or meeting. 

7 tips for taking corporate meeting minutes effectively

Writing the minutes of corporate meetings might seem technical, but it really isn’t. Once you know the fundamentals of good note-taking and have a grasp of what is legally required, you can create effective minutes.

Here are a few tips to guide you:

1. Know what the law and articles of association say: There are often legal directives on details to include in the minutes of corporate meetings. For example, in some jurisdictions, the meeting minutes must contain the signature of the chairperson and company secretary. 

Knowing what the law and association’s articles say will help guide your writing.

2. Be concise and clear: When it comes to minutes, less is often more. You do not need to record everything that was said or record what every attendee says verbatim. 

Simply make a note of the most important things that were said during the meeting and who said them. These should be summarized and presented as clearly as possible.

3. Focus: It might sometimes be difficult to keep your mind from drifting during meetings. But as the person in charge of writing the minutes, you must remain focused throughout the meeting to avoid losing important details.

Put your phone and anything that might distract you away, and pay careful attention to the discussion and activities during the meeting.

4. Use live transcription and/or live recording software: You have to account for your limitations as a human being. It is possible to miss, mishear, or misinterpret something an attendee says while you are focused on writing.

This is why you should use software to record the entire meeting so that you can play it back and make corrections to the minutes where necessary. Notta AI notetaker is the perfect software for this because it has both recording and live transcription features, and even better, it is suitable for both online and in-person meetings. This tool can transcribe 100+ languages and you can view, edit, and share the transcript easily afterward.

It is important to stress that you must obtain permission from the attendees in the meeting before you proceed to live-record them.

5. Use initials and abbreviations: Part of writing efficiently is simplifying the process for yourself. You can do this easily by using initials for attendees’ names when they say something and abbreviations instead of writing words or terms out completely. 

6. Seek clarification: It is okay to seek clarification and ask questions when there is something you are unsure of instead of recording the wrong thing.

7. Use a template: There are several good corporate meeting minutes templates you can choose from. Finding and using a good one will save you a lot of time and make writing minutes a lot easier.

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Corporate meeting minutes template

There is no one-size-fits-all corporate meeting minutes template. The content of the template is often largely determined by the meeting type and the company.

However, the following templates as good guides on what a board of directors’ meeting and annual general meeting should look like:

Board of Directors meeting minutes template

Annual general meeting minutes template

Read next: How to Approve Meeting Minutes Effectively

Run perfect corporate meetings

The learning curve for conducting a successful corporate meeting and writing effective meetings is a bit steep, with both legal and practical considerations. The good news, however, is that using the tips in this article, practicing, and optimizing the process as you go will bring you the desired results in a good time.