MEMO/SHORT MESSAGE

Definition of Short Message/Memo

Short message/Memo is a brief text message that is used to convey something to
another person so that the person is doing or not doing something because we
can’t meet in person to the people we are going to give the message.
Characteristics of Short Message/Memo
 Clear Address
 Simple
 Easy
Function of memo is to send an important message to other people, like friends
and relatives.
Purposes of Sending Message:
1. Asking for permission
2. Apologizing
3. Asking for favors
4. Cancelling previously agreed things, etc.
The structures of Short Message:
a. Receiver/Recipient/Addressee: the one who accepts the message.
b. Content/Message: what the message is.
c. Sender: who sends the message.
Some language features that you can follow to make a good short message are as
follow:
1. Using Simple Present Tense
2. Using Future Tense
3. Using adjectives
4. Using modal auxiliary
5. Using alphanumeric characters
 6. Using common terms or abbreviations
Look at the model of short message/memo below.
Text Structure Short Message/ Memo
Receiver/ Recipient/ Addressee To Evalia,
Content Endah and I are planning to go to Insan’s
house tonight. Do you want to join us? We
will do our task and also watch the newest
movie there. I’m waiting for your reply.
Reply as soon as possible
Sender Vika.

Internal Memo
To : Sri Rejeki
From : Harwan
Subject : Get the CD

I am in a hurry to catch the bus. It’s quite late. I’m still burning CDs
in the teacher’s computer.
Please, you wait the process and keep all the burnt CDs with you.
There are 5 CDs more to burn. Don’t forget shutting down the
computer and disconnect the electric lines.
Thanks a lot.

A Business Memo

A business memo is an internal, informative business document. Business

memos are like internal press releases; they are ideal for sharing brief yet vital

information quickly, often (but not always) with multiple people at once. While

less formal than business letters, the language in a business memo should still be
professional and polite—particularly when including any action items for the

intended recipient(s).

A business memo would be suitable for conveying the following:

 Changes to personnel, including team additions, departures, and role

changes

 Updates on upcoming events, such as meetings or company gatherings

 Shifts in everyday operations or workflows

In business, the purpose of a memo is to provide or request information from

people within your organization. It is important to carefully consider the key

point of the memo and who should receive it. A memo that is written clearly

using a friendly and professional tone avoids any opportunity for

misinterpretation.

While specific formatting details, such as colors and font, will depend on your

organization’s internal guidelines, all memos should clarify the following

information in the header (at the top of the document):

Part 1: HEADER

TO: provide the names and titles of everyone who will receive your
memo
Cc (Optional): The name or title of anyone else who will receive a copy,
if applicable
FROM: provide your complete name and title
DATE: provide the complete and accurate date – don’t forget to include
the year

SUBJECT: provide a brief, yet specific description of what the memo is

about

Part 2: MESSAGE

Introduction – explain the purpose

Body – addresses the information required

Conclusion – (Summary and possible recommendations)

Here’s how to write an effective business memo:

 Keep your subject line concise but also precise. Avoid general or vague

subject lines like “Upcoming Meeting” in favor of something more specific,

such as “Notice of Date Change for Upcoming Marketing Department

Meeting.” This way, even busy readers who are only skimming the

document will understand what issue is being addressed.

 Lead with the main topic of your memo. It should be clear from the very

first sentence what this memo is about. If your memo is on the long side,

your first paragraph should briefly summarize the following content.

 Keep your audience top of mind. Tailor the content of your message to

your primary audience’s priorities. Consider what matters most to them

and emphasize that element early in your message to grab your readers’

attention. For memos distributed across multiple teams, be sure to use

language familiar to all, avoiding jargon that only certain team members

may understand.

 Include only relevant information. Some supporting information may be

helpful, even necessary, to illustrate specific points. However, if you can

remove a sentence or paragraph without losing the meaning of your

message, it is usually better left out.

 Choose the right tone. All memos should be confident and direct, but be

sure to consider your content and audience as well. Sensitive HR issues, for

example, requiring a more empathetic tone than minor scheduling updates.

When in doubt, use Grammarly’s tone detector. It evaluates the tone of

 your memo and its appropriateness for your message, ensuring it’s

delivered effectively and sounds exactly as intended.

 Choose the right communication channel. There are subtle but

important differences in sharing a memo via email versus posting it in a

chat channel or on a private messaging platform, so be sure to choose your

channel carefully when sending your message. An urgent update, for

example, may be better suited to something like Slack than to an email that

may not be opened right away.

 Avoid potentially confusing or misleading mistakes. No matter how

simple the message, it’s always important to reread what you’ve written to

eliminate typos and other issues that could lead to a misunderstanding. Not

only does Grammarly catch typos and grammar mistakes, but it can also

detect your tone and make word choice suggestions for clearer writing.

Example of a business memo:

Tips in composing a memo:
 Your memos should be succinct, formal, clear, interesting and easy to
read
 It should be logically organized, accurate, well-researched and
informative
 Avoid using technical jargon and abbreviations that the recipient may not
understand
 Avoid the use of slang, colloquialisms and contractions
 Use action verbs and an active voice to convey your confidence
 Highlight important points and reduce unnecessary wordiness with
headings, sub-headings, bullet points and numbered lists
 Check for correct grammar, spelling and punctuation

What Are Meeting Minutes?

Meeting minutes, or mom (for minutes of meeting) can be defined as the written
record of everything that's happened during a meeting. They're used to inform
people who didn't attend the meeting about what happened, or to keep track of
what was decided during the meeting so that you can revisit it and use it to
inform future decisions.

The five steps are:

1. Pre-Planning
2. Record taking - at the meeting
3. Minutes writing or transcribing
4. Distributing or sharing of meeting minutes
5. Filing or storage of minutes for future reference

What Is the Purpose of Meeting Minutes?

You shouldn’t be intimidated by the term “minutes”, since it’s actually a little
misleading. After all, your committee or Board doesn’t want or need a record of
its meeting proceedings minute by minute! But it is important to capture the
essence of the meeting, including details such as:

 Decision made (motions made, votes, etc.)

  Next steps planned
 Identification and tracking of action items

Minutes are a tangible record of the meeting for its participants and a source of
information for members who were unable to attend. In some cases, meeting
minutes can act as a reference point, for example:

 when a meeting’s outcomes impact other collaborative activities or

projects within the organization
 minutes can serve to notify (or remind) individuals of tasks assigned to
them and/or timelines

1. Pre-Planning Meeting Minutes:

A well-planned meeting helps ensure effective meeting minutes. If the Chair and
the Secretary or minutes-taker work together to ensure the agenda and meeting
are well thought out, it makes minute taking much easier. For example,
depending on the meeting structure and the tools you use, the minutes-taker
could work with the Chair to create a document format that works as an agenda
and minutes outline as well.

What Is the Agenda of a Meeting?

Meeting agenda = outline

At the very least, it’s important to get a copy of the meeting agenda and use it as
a guide or outline for taking notes, setting up your mom format, and preparing
the minutes – with the order and numbering of items on the minutes of meeting
matching those of the agenda.

In addition, the agenda and/or meeting notice also provides information that
will need to be included in the minutes, such as:

 the names of all the meeting attendees, including guests or speakers

 documents that are sent out with the agenda or handed out in the
meeting – copies (digital or hard copy) of handouts should be stored with
the meeting minutes for future reference and for sharing with those who
were unable to attend the meeting (and others as determined by the
meeting’s Chair).
2. What Should Be Included in Meeting Minutes?

Before you start taking notes, it’s important to understand the type of
information you need to record at the meeting. As noted earlier, your
organization may have required content and a specific mom format that you’ll
need to follow, but generally, meeting minutes usually include the following:

 Date and time of the meeting

 Names of the meeting participants and those unable to attend (e.g.,
“regrets”)
 Acceptance or corrections/amendments to previous meeting minutes
 Decisions made about each agenda item, for example:
o Actions taken or agreed to be taken
o Next steps
o Voting outcomes – e.g., (if necessary, details regarding who made
motions; who seconded and approved or via show of hands, etc.)
o Motions taken or rejected
o Items to be held over
o New business
o Next meeting date and time

Tips that might help your note taking:

 Create an outline – as discussed earlier, having an outline (or template)

based on the agenda makes it easy for you to simply jot down notes,
decisions, etc. under each item as you go along. If you are taking notes by
hand, consider including space below each item on your outline for your
hand-written notes, then print these out and use this to capture minutes.
 Check-off attendees as they enter the room - if you know the meeting
attendees, you can check them off as they arrive, if not have folks introduce
themselves at the start of the meeting or circulate an attendance list they can
check-off themselves.
 Record decisions or notes on action items in your outline as soon as they
occur to be sure they are recorded accurately
 Ask for clarification if necessary – for example, if the group moves on
without making a decision or an obvious conclusion, ask for clarification of
the decision and/or next steps involved.
 Don’t try to capture it all – you can’t keep up if you try to write down the
conversation verbatim, so be sure to simply (and clearly) write (or type) just
the decisions, assignments, action steps, etc.
 Record it – literally, if you are concerned about being able to keep up with
note taking, consider recording the meeting (e.g., on your smart phone, iPad,
 recording device, etc.) but be sure to let participants know they are being
recording. While you don’t want to use the recording to create a word-for-
word transcript of the meeting, the recording can come in handy if you need
clarification.
Meeting Minutes Template:

Here's a simple template you can refer to next time you need to take meeting
minutes.
Meeting Minutes Sample:
3. The Minutes Writing Process

Once the meeting is over, it’s time to pull together your notes and write the
minutes. Here are some tips that might help:

 Try to write the minutes as soon after the meeting as possible while
everything is fresh in your mind.
 Review your outline and if necessary, add additional notes or clarify points
raised. Also check to ensure all decisions, actions and motions are clearly
noted.
 Ensure you're including sufficient detail
o For Board of Director’s minutes in particular, we recommend including a
short description of each action taken, as well as the rationale behind the
decision
o If there was a lot of discussion before passing a motion, write down the
major arguments for and against
 Edit to ensure brevity and clarity, so the minutes are easy to read
 In terms of mom format, here are a few things to keep in mind:
o Be objective
o Write in the same tense throughout
o Avoid using names other than to record motions and seconds.
o Avoid personal observations — the minutes should be solely fact-based
o If you need to refer to other documents, don't try to summarize them.
Rather, simply indicate where they can be found or attach them as an
appendix
4. Do Meeting Minutes Have To Be Approved?

Before you share your meeting minutes, make sure that the Chair has reviewed
and either revised and/or approved the minutes for circulation. They are not an
official record of a meeting unless this has taken place. Depending on your
Board, minutes may also be formally approved at the beginning of the next
meeting.

5. Distributing or Sharing Meeting Minutes

As the official “minutes-taker” or Secretary, your role may include dissemination

of the minutes.

Online sharing

The method of sharing or distribution will depend on the tools that you and your
organization use. Since minutes and other documentation can create a pile of
paper, it’s great if you can use a paperless sharing process. For example, if you
are using a word processing tool (e.g., Microsoft Word) that doesn’t offer online
sharing, you might want to create a PDF of the document and send this and the
other attachments or meeting documentation via email. Alternately, if you are all
using Google docs – for meeting invitations, agenda and additional document
sharing – you can simply “share” the document with that group once it has been
finalized. Committee or Board members can simply read the documents online
and save a few trees!

Sharing in the Cloud?

If your organization is using a cloud-based membership management

system (like WildApricot), you can publish the minutes as a web page and give
access only to the committee or Board members, depending on your
organization’s needs. Through members-only webpages, you can create a secure
online Intranet for your Board and committees.

Tools Specifically For Meeting Minutes:

If you are wondering about the types of tools you might use specifically for
meeting minutes, here are some tools that organizations we've worked with
have found helpful:

 Google Docs: Also supports collaborative note taking. [Here are

some meeting minute sample templates in Google docs. If you send out a
meeting request using Google Calendar, you can attach a Google doc agenda
outline. Once minutes are crafted (using the outline), you can simply share
the document with the group using their email addresses.]
 OneNote: (if you are a Microsoft user) - Very fast and allows for organization
of notes. Also support audio recording with corresponding note time-
stamping.
 Lucid Meetings: Fantastic meeting-tool to automate your meeting processes
like notes, attendance, and organization.
 Evernote: Great note taking tool.
 Agreedo: supports creation of meeting minutes and tracking the results.
 Minutes.io: allows you to quickly take meeting minutes with hotkey
shortcuts and the ability to work online or offline.

6. Filing/Storage of Meeting Minutes

Most committees and Boards review and either approve or amend the minutes
at the beginning of the subsequent meeting. Once you’ve made any required
revisions, the minutes will then need to be stored for future reference. Some
organizations may store these online (e.g., in Google docs or SkyDrive) and also
back these up on an external hard drive. You may also need to print and store
hard copies as well or provide these to a staff member or Chair for filing.

Here are some of the minute-taking tips and techniques.

1. Start with the Essential Details

Start with very basic details of the meeting to give it a structure and an overview
that can clear out many questions quickly at one glance.
Also, make sure to include as and when required:
 Date and time of the meeting
 Location of the meeting
 Purpose of the meeting
 Names of attendees and non-attendees who were invited but could not
attend
 Agenda Points
These points should be used as a template to record more info, giving context
inside each point.
2. Use a Standard Template

By making a more standardized meeting minute format, we can create a

template for meeting minutes that can be populated in each meeting.
Consistency in minutes can be a great time saver when there are huge numbers
of notes floating around.
Also, anyone reading the meeting minutes made with a standard meeting
minutes format can quickly jump to a specific section without wondering where
it is written because of the standard and easy-to-use template.
For making a good standard meeting minute format, write down the bare
essentials that need to be recorded, and as the requirement increases, keep
adding some more points. It should not be very complex but short, to the point,
and concise.
3. Write Meeting Minutes While You Still Remember Them
There are several new tips for taking meeting minutes that you can explore, but
the art of how to take meeting minutes effectively lies in the basics.
This one is a no-brainer. We all have limited capacity to remember information,
and while juggling through meetings, it is obvious to start gradually forgetting
some bits of information.
It is best to write meeting minutes as the meeting happens rather than waiting
for the conversation to get over or for someone to take a pause. For writing
minutes, you can use any online document editor or a note-taking
app. Fireflies is one such app that allows you to get rid of the traditional method
of note-taking.
4. State Just the Facts When Taking Meeting Minutes

It is the note-taking person’s responsibility to understand the difference

between someone’s opinion and a fact. Sticking to facts not only helps in stable
growth but keeps professional clashes at bay.
5. Record Actions and Owners
During meetings, a lot of actions are taken, and tasks are delegated to the people.
Note down all the actions and the people these tasks are assigned to. Minutes
should also contain all the deadlines and previously accomplished tasks that
need to be used for review in future meetings.
6. Include Images in Your Meeting Minutes
In meetings, a lot of stuff is drawn on boards for easy explanation and
discussion. Take a snap of it and insert them into documents. Other people will
love it as they can get a highly accurate context of the meeting discussion.
Photos are great at explaining what was precisely discussed compared to you
trying to explain the same in words.
7. Listen More, Summarize Later
Listening more at the meeting is crucial to understand what is being said and
precisely in which context. If you keep writing as someone is speaking, it can
make things unclear.
Try to listen clearly and openly to all the discussion and summarize it later if
required or wait until someone ends their point. This and other meeting
etiquettes should be followed in every meeting, online or offline.

8. Remain Neutral

Meeting minutes should not include biases regarding specific people or what ‘he
said, she said’ conversation.

Minutes should reflect on the meeting without any biases towards any employee
or a particular conversation. Do not add any unnecessary details and keep it
professional.

9. Be Ready and Organized Before the Meeting Starts

Make sure whoever is assigned to take meeting minutes is ready before the
meeting commences.

They should be aware and well-versed in all the tools or software, or devices
they would need to record or highlight key points during the meeting. This is
one of the most important ways of increasing meeting productivity.

This will make the person more efficient with better productivity and cause no
delay during the meeting. All the protocols of recording and organizing should
be decided in advance.
10. Summarize

During the meeting, you might write all that you hear as important. But at the
end of it, you should present a concise and clear summary of the meeting, and it
works well to provide an overview of critical decisions and actions taken during
the meeting.

11. Proofread Your Meeting Minutes

Before sending the meeting minutes to everyone, they should be proofread by

different people to make sure everything is correct and the language used in the
notes is in the right tone. These notes are critical from an organization's point of
view. They must not contain any errors, be they linguistic or factual.

12. Send the Meeting Minutes Quickly

Ideally, after the meeting, meeting minutes should be sent to people who were
not present, people in important decision-making positions, and the people who
might benefit from the information discussed. It should be prepared and sent
within a few hours.

Taking meetings minutes is highly tedious and is heavily dependent on human

intervention, which increases the chances of error and miscommunication. To
make the process seamless and error-free, you can find additional tools to
enhance the experience.