“This is a very practical question that I’d appreciate feedback on please.
We have nearly come to the end of our stock of minute books and are looking at what is available in the market place. We currently use rather large, leather bound books in which to glue the minutes from Board meetings of PLC. For our Committees we have slightly less ostentatious books where pages can be removed through the metal hinges at the top and bottom of the book but we still glue the minutes onto the pages.
What do others do please?”
Like you, we use bound books into which we insert the minutes of board and board committee minutes. However, we also keep the minutes electonically and are currently looking at some kind of board portal to provide greater security around board minutes, packs etc whilst providing board members with electonic access to the minutes and papers. I hope this is of some help. Kind regards
We use a ring binder and minutes are printed on thicker paper than just photocopy paper. The signed minutes are scanned into a minute folder for ease of circulation where necessary. The actual minutes are not hole punched but put in a separate plastic wallet for each set. They are all kept in a fire proof safe.
The same would be the case for Committees.
We use a ring binder and file the minutes on standard plain paper. These are stored in secure fireproof cabinets permanently and recorded electronically for ease of cross-referencing.
Although it is now not a legal requirement to keep minutes in a bound book, minutes are often still kept in this traditional way (and down to personal preference) but as it is now permissible, it is very common for minutes to be kept in a loose-leaf binder. Section 1135 of the Act permits minutes to be kept in a computerised form, although it is a requirement that the system is capable of printing out written copies. This does pose practical problems concerning signature, verification etc.
If a traditional format is preferred, various law stationers (such as Jordans) provide excellent binders containing all the registers, correctly ruled and headed. These are also ideal for hand-written records kept for small companies.
We used to stick minutes into our minute books up ontil about 10 years ago. the problem was the pages kept falling out when the Glue became old.
Since then we have printed our board and committee minutes onto Kalamazoo paper which has margins ruled, a box for the Chairman’s initials in the corner of each page and is cut such that it may be bound into a hard cover using two cloth tapes.
Every two years we tkae a photocopy of and scan the minutes onto a CD and send the original minutes to a book binder where thay are bound into hard volumes.
We find anything over aout two years of minutes becomes unwealdy in th ehard binder.
For our subsidiary companies we print onto A4 paper and then use lever arch files to fiel the minutes.
Soft copies of all minutes are also retained in annual directories available only to the Secretariat department.
This is one area where for the parent company we continue to follow a practice adopted in the late 1980’s. We print minutes onto standard A4 shaets and then glue these onto plain paper mounts that fit into Twinlock Crown Binders.
If it wasn’t for the fact that the past 20 years minutes are all in the same form, we would change to a simpler method, but given there are a limited number of meetings each year, adherence to the old system is a minor inconvenience.
For committee and subsidiary company minutes, we merely retain in standard A4 ring binders.
I still use a quill pen in leather bound parchment book which has a lock for added security … only joking!
As other respondents, minutes are kept in simple folder. We do make one concession in that they are printed on a slightly better grade of paper to aid longevity.
We also number our minutes and slot them into punched pockets in ring binders so they can easily be removed. For the 2 PLCs (ex-listed) the binders are slightly more ostentatious, however for our other subsidiaries, they are just the average ring binder and nothing special…
We use standard A4 paper hole-punched (4 holes) and the paper is then inserted into a minute book with a locking mechanism. We purchase these books though our stationery supplier.
Each minute is numbered for continuity.
We use the standard, green Jordans A4 size lever arch minute books for all Board Minutes. The Minutes are simply punched and clipped into the book.
We use sequentially numbered Word documents and keep the signed hard copies in a ring binder. We maintain a central register for the numbers of all our Board Minutes on an Excel spreadsheet.
We went through a similar problem a few years ago. We now produce minutes on high quality paper and file them in a book that sounds similar to the one used for committees. Once this book becomes full the minutes are then bound into a hard copy book.
We use the same process for Board and Committee meetings.
Like the previous post we have long since abandoned gluing in minutes (we have certainly not done that for 10 years) and have used numbered minutes in a specially designed ringbinder with prepunched minute paper.
We use a ring binder and place the minutes in a ‘reinforced polished pocket’ so they can be removed as and when required.
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We have abandonded large leather bound books in which to glue minutes long ago. Minutes are numbered and once signed, kept in anfour ring binder in punched pockets.