Taking minutes of meetings is administrative good practice. It creates a record of what has been agreed, and by whom; and of what is to be done, by when and by whom. For such a basic aspect of the administration of business of all kinds, it is surprising that there is little formal guidance about how this might most effectively be done. When we announced that we would be looking at this issue and asked for volunteers to help us do so we were overwhelmed by the response. More than 100 governance professionals from a variety of sectors indicated their willingness to help and their feedback has shown that there is a variety of practice both across sectors and the industry as a whole. In view of this interest and in view of the pace of development in company secretarial and governance practice, we have decided to seek input from those whose day to day work this is. This will ensure that our guidance on good practice reflects the reality of modern market practice on a cross-sectoral basis.