I wrote this article with input from Syd Baxter, City Clerk, City of Vancouver.

Minutes show the history of an organization and its decision-making processes. Given today's technological advances, organizations should create electronic archiving systems for their minutes. Electronic archives will be very valuable for researchers and future members who, years later, will want to track the evolution of issues and decision-making.

If you have not yet embarked on electronic archiving of your minutes, be forewarned that creating such a system will likely be a labor-intensive undertaking. Nevertheless, if you take your organization's history seriously, such an undertaking is essential. Here are a few tips:

• Plan before starting. Consider how your minutes will be used and organize your electronic system accordingly for convenient retrieval of relevant data.
• Your ultimate goal should be to have the entire history of your organization readily accessible electronically. Start by archiving the minutes that are currently in electronic form, and begin to convert older printed minutes into computer files.
• Establish standards for naming electronic files and directories, and make these standards known to everyone, so they are used consistently across the organization.
• Post non-confidential minutes on your organization’s web site and organize them by date and group (board or council minutes, committee minutes, etc.).
• Establish standards to facilitate an easy search for key words and concepts. When referring to an issue in the minutes, similar titles and word strings should be used whenever possible, so it is easy to track the history and evolution of certain issues.
• Your electronic archiving system should be user-friendly and enable easy searches by non-technical people, such as your membership or the general public.
• Plan for storing backups of electronic documents in a different location, for the possibility of flood or fire.
• You may wish to consult a qualified archivist for advice on electronic archival and retrieval.