I have served as corporate secretary for three different companies; at one, we recorded all of the proceedings.  It was not useful at all, because who wants the job of having to listen to the proceedings all over again?  I’ve found that I can usually take good enough notes to craft the minutes (I do not know shorthand, but I can type pretty quickly) and not once was I ever in a position where I wished I had recorded the proceedings.  In any event if you decide to do this, you definitely need to ensure that the recorded minutes are destroyed or there is little point in crafting a second set of written minutes.  

Small Publicly Traded 

I had been taking notes by hand (not shorthand) for our Board for a couple of years. A few months ago, I took advantage of the fact that the entire Board had been given I-pads to allow them portable, anytime access to our electronic board portal and I switched over to an I-pad as well (I have a small, wireless keyboard).  No one objected, nor had I expected them to object.

My notes are very much what they would be if handwritten but they are now so much easier to turn into minutes.  I keep the notes and other drafts of the minutes until the final minutes have been approved.

Given that for all intents and purposes there is no longer a distinction between paper and electronic records, the manner in which notes are recorded should not matter so long as proper record management practices are followed.

Medium Size Public traded company

Claudia Ferris

Claudia.ferris@quadrafnx.com