The Minutes are kept primarily to record the legal Motions of the Board and to record other basic information such as the names of Supervisors and appointees who attended as well as the names of residents and individuals who spoke or commented at the meeting.

They are also often used to keep track of the progress of projects, to record the timeline of events, to record the basic content of complaints and other topics discussed, as well as a tool for remembering when and with whom the next action lies on any particular subject.

Minutes are not a verbatim account or transcript of the meeting and do not contain direct quotes except very rarely.  Meetings are generally recorded for the purposes of assisting the secretary with recording the minutes. The recording combined with the personal notes of the secretary, when edited and condensed make up the draft of the minutes of a meeting.

The draft Minutes are distributed to the Board prior to the meeting for review.  All Board members have an opportunity to suggest revisions to the Minutes before the meeting.  If provided and acceptable, these revisions are incorporated into the final copy presented at the Board meeting.  If there is sufficient time before the meeting, they are redistributed to the Board.  Otherwise a final copy is presented at the Board table for approval.