Minutes of meetings

With over 40 years’ experience in major Indian and multinational corporations, I would emphasize the importance of minutes of meetings. Apart from accurately recording the discussions and decisions of a meeting, minutes ideally need to be issued promptly, preferably within 24 hours. Minutes need to be sent to all those present at the meeting and also to all those on the committee who were unable to attend for whatever reason. Minutes are often sent also to those others in the organization who need to be kept informed of the proceedings and decisions of the committee. This is so that any action or follow-up that is required to be taken is noted and acted upon by all those receiving minutes. As Peter Drucker says, "Minutes are management in action.”

I was therefore surprised to read that one of the trustees of the Bombay Parsi Punchayet (BPP) has been denied copies of minutes by BPP trustees.

The BPP must then be unique in its working — "unique” in this case not being a very complimentary adjective. Has this always been the practice over many years? Or is this the management style of the present trustees?

FARROKH MEHTA

farrokh_mehta@yahoo.com