What do you call the person who goes through the minutes after a meeting and checks that everything is correct

word-requestword-usage

At any formal meeting, you appoint a secretary to takes the minutes, and another person to go through the minutes after the meeting and check that everything is correct, right? Now I'm wondering what you call this other person? I was thinking perhaps "attestant" (because they attest that the minutes are correct), but I haven't been able to find any support for this in dictionaries or when I google it.

Note that this is not a duplicate of the post "What is the person who takes minutes in a meeting called?" since I'm asking about a different role, which is not discussed at all in that post. Thing is, the role discussed in the other post is ”the minute-taker”, which has an exact match in my language/culture. In my culture, the minute-taker role is, however, separate from the role I’m asking about in this post; that is, we have both a minute-taker and a role called ”justerare” (i.e. a person whose sole responsibility is to proofread the minutes and sign off on them). Apparently, this latter role doesn’t exist in an English meeting context; instead, the duty of this role is taken over by other roles (among them the minute-taker), but this is not clear from (or even discussed in) the suggested duplicate. Consequently, I think the present post serves its own purpose 🙂

Best Answer

I don't know about elsewhere, but here in the UK, at a meeting, someone will be designated to be the minute taker (can be hyphenated as 'minute-taker'). This may be someone who is also a participant in their own right, or someone who takes no part, but is present as a kind of secretary, to listen and record.

The basic tasks for the minute taker are:

Taking rough notes that accurately reflect the decisions and discussion that took place during the meeting.

Writing up these notes in an agreed format (whether electronically or in hard copy) so that information can be easily discerned and communications are clear, thus avoiding any confusion. Responsibilities and ownership must be clearly indicated within the minutes.

Copying and distributing the minutes to all relevant people as detailed in the Participants section.

Ensuring that a copy is filed appropriately, keeping all minutes together in a file for future reference.

Responsibilities of the Minute Taker

Regarding the word 'attestant', I have never, ever, heard of an 'attestant' in a UK/British business meeting context, formal or otherwise. It may be a false friend - in Germanic languages, e.g. Swedish, German, Danish, Norwegian, Dutch, I think it is a legal word for a person who attests to the genuineness of a document or signature by adding their own signature. In British English legal language, we would use 'witness' for that, in connection with e.g. a will, passport application, etc. However this is a narrow legal meaning, not in connection with business meetings.

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