Guidelines for the Preparation, Forwarding, Binding and Storage of Minutes, Agendas and Agenda Papers for The Minutes Office

Committee minutes are the University’s official record of its decision making. The minutes and meeting papers of Council, the Committees of Council and Faculties are retained as the PERMANENT OFFICIAL UNIVERSITY RECORD and are bound into UNIVERSITY OF MELBOURNE MINUTE BOOKS to enhance their value and reliability as a primary reference source; many others are retained on Central Records files. These guidelines will ensure the longevity and legibility of these vital records.

When the minutes and meeting papers of Council, the Committees of Council and Faculties pass from the Committee secretaries to the Minutes Office, they are checked, paginated, microfilmed, bound and archived. In the event of a disaster in storage, the University relies upon the microfilm to re-create the records. Because some papers have not conformed to the guidelines in the past, in the event of disaster, there will be gaps in the Corporate Memory of the University.

Committee secretaries are the first point of contact for incoming Committee papers. This means they are in a position to ensure that the papers which are destined to become the University’s permanent official record are of the best quality possible by encouraging compliance with these guidelines.

Throughout these guidelines, agendas and agenda papers may be referred to as meeting papers.

1. Minutes, agendas and agenda papers are required in the Minutes Office for the following:
   
• Academic Board
• Academic Programs Committee
• Buildings and Estates Committee
• Committee of Convocation
• Council
• Faculty of Architecture, Building and Planning
• Faculty of Arts
• Faculty of Economics and Commerce
• Faculty of Education
• Faculty of Engineering
• Faculty of Land and Food Resources
• Faculty of Law
• Faculty of Medicine, Dentistry and Health Sciences
• Faculty of Music
• Faculty of Science
• Faculty of Veterinary Science
• Finance Committee
• Planning and Budget Committee
• Remuneration and Employment Conditions Committee
• Research and Research Training Committee
• Selection Procedures Committee
• Teaching and Learning Quality Assurance Committee
• University Relations Committee
• DO NOT SEND MINUTES AND MEETING PAPERS TO CENTRAL RECORDS OR RECORDS MANAGEMENT PROGRAM FOR ANY OF THE ABOVE IF YOU ARE RESPONSIBLE FOR FORWARDING COPIES OF THE SAME PAPERS TO THE MINUTES OFFICE.
• Information copies of Committees listed above received by Deans and Heads of Departments can be destroyed when they are of no further administrative use to the recipient.
• Minutes and meeting papers of other Central Committees are retained on file in Central Records.
• Minutes of Faculty Committees (other than Faculty) should be retained in the Faculty Office.
• Minutes of Academic Departmental Committees should be retained in the Department.
2. Official signed confirmed minutes, agendas and agenda papers should be the Original Documents.
   
   • Where any papers are not the Originals: When photocopying papers, it is important to ensure that the copies are properly aligned (and not on an angle) and legible, for indexing, binding, information retrieval, and archival purposes.
   • Official confirmed minutes should be signed by the Chairperson at the meeting in which they are approved.
   • Official confirmed minutes that have been “confirmed subject to amendments” must reflect the relevant amendments where necessary to ensure a true and accurate record of the meeting is held.
   • Minutes of meeting papers forwarded to the Minutes Office on Permanent Archival Paper must contain the original signature of confirmation.
   • It is permissible for a minor amendment to be written in hand on the document and signed (in ink).
   • As the minutes, agendas and agenda papers required in the Minutes Office are retained as the PERMANENT OFFICIAL UNIVERSITY RECORD, it is important to remember:
     
     1. All pages are to be legible, clean, dry and white A4 size. Thermal paper, and pages on which correcting fluid, highlighter pens, or any type of adhesives including sticky white labels have been applied deteriorate rapidly and tend to stick together, and are therefore unacceptable for preservation of records,
     2. Documents for the permanent record should be black and white, text-based wherever possible,
     3. Where possible, colour publications should be accompanied by a plain text version to ensure capture of full information on archival microfilm,
     4. Information in graphical form should have sufficient text-based elements or be accompanied by a plain text version (eg-table) to ensure capture of full information on archival microfilm,
     5. Avoid shading in tables to ensure capture of full information on archival microfilm,
     6. Font point sizes below eight should be avoided to ensure capture of full information on archival microfilm,
     7. Sans-serif fonts are preferred for smaller point sizes.
   • Pages should be printed on one side only. This is essential for paginating, microfilming, binding and information retrieval purposes of minutes and meeting papers, and also to enable efficient indexing (where required).
   • Margins on left side of page of all minutes, agendas and agenda papers created by Committee secretaries/support staff or within the University need to be at least 2cm to allow for binding.
   • Staples should not be used.
   • Agenda papers should be in Item Order, and marked accordingly (on top right hand corner of page) with Item No and Meeting Details etc. Some Committees agenda papers contain only the Item No. PLEASE DO NOT USE STICKY WHITE LABELS TO REFLECT THESE DETAILS.
   • Flexibility will need to be given for documents created outside the University.

For an example see Attachments 1, 2, 3, 4 & 5

3. As the papers required in the Minutes Office are retained as the PERMANENT OFFICIAL UNIVERSITY RECORD it is essential that all papers relevant to items are received (including tabled papers), and should be checked prior to forwarding to the Minutes Office. This ensures that the record is complete, accurate and reliable.
   
   
   • Delay sending agendas and agenda papers to the Minutes Office until that particular meeting has been confirmed. Once confirmed, send the complete set of meeting papers (signed confirmed minutes, agendas and agenda papers). If this is not possible, forward the signed confirmed minutes once they have been confirmed.
   • Any papers tabled at a meeting that were not included in the set of meeting papers forwarded to the Minutes Office should be forwarded with the necessary meeting details as soon as possible after the meeting.
   • Some meeting papers are received in the Minutes Office annually. If you are in this position, delay sending meeting papers until the final meeting of the year has been confirmed at the first meeting of the following year. In cases where an annual meeting is held, delay sending papers until that annual meeting has been confirmed at the following year annual meeting.
   • Each page for the year of minutes, agendas and agenda papers is paginated sequentially on the top right-hand side of page upon receipt in the Minutes Office; therefore it is not necessary for meeting papers to be paginated prior to sending them to the Minutes Office.

Prompt Delivery to the Minutes Office of the Original signed confirmed minutes together with the agendas and agenda papers would be appreciated to ensure the Minutes Office has the complete and accurate set of meeting papers when preparing for indexing, microfilming and binding.

Queries regarding the preparation and forwarding of official confirmed minutes, agendas and agenda papers, and which meeting papers are required in the Minutes Office should be directed to the Minutes Office, University Secretary’s Department on extension 46162.

Queries regarding the layout and content of official confirmed minutes, agendas and agenda papers should be directed to the University Secretary's Office on extension 47117.

Circulation of these guidelines to all concerned is appreciated.

Attachment 1 = First two pages of a set of Minutes taken from Academic Board
Attachment 2 = Confirmation page of Minutes taken from Academic Board (also used by Council)
Attachment 3 = Confirmation page of Minutes taken from Planning and Budget Committee
Attachment 4 = First two pages of an Agenda taken from Academic Board
Attachment 5 = First two pages of a Minutes/Agenda item shown in Attachments 1 and 4-Item A.1(a)

Leanne Dyson
Minutes Office, University Secretary’s Department
31 July 2006