Meeting minutes

Use this when someone asks for the minutes of a meeting from their notes. Minutes record what was done, not what was said: who met, when and where, every motion or decision and how it ended, and who signs. One script writes that, so your attention goes to getting the facts right. Minutes are edited and signed, so they come back as Word.

How to make them

1. Read the notes, the agenda and the list of who came. Ask nothing the notes already say.
2. Write a small spec file (JSON). Start from the template that fits:

country is the law the company is under; language is en, sv, nb, da, fi, fr, nl, de, es, it or pl. The company's name tells its form (BV, NV, SRL, SA, GmbH, AG, S.L., S.p.A., S.r.l., sp. z o.o.), and the form picks the article; say legal_form when the name does not end in it. In Spain, Italy and Poland a decision carries its count: votes with for, against and abstained, or unanimous, or the names of who voted which way. For a board, present lists the directors there and in_attendance everyone else (the CEO, the secretary when not a director). A decision may name who voted for and against. 3. Build the minutes:

python3 <skill folder>/scripts/minutes_create.py spec.json minutes.docx

4. Keep the spec beside the file and run the pack check; fix what it names: python3 <skill folder>/../_checks/packcheck.py meeting-minutes <your output>

Nothing given is left off

minutes_create.py stops before anything is laid out when the spec holds a key it has no field for (description or resolution on an item, apologies), a value of another shape, or a key these minutes have no line for (Spain's convened in English minutes), and names the key. spec.fields.json beside this file lists every key. What was reported under an item goes in the item's notes (a string, or a list of paragraphs), what was decided in its decisions; a fact about the meeting as a whole that has no field (that notice was given, what the quorum is) goes in the top-level notes, one line each, printed before the first item. Who abstained is named when a decision gives abstained; previous_minutes in your own words is printed as written. Never leave a fact out to make the error go away: put it where the message says, or say in your reply what the page does not carry.

The check fails minutes with a heading and nothing recorded under it (MINUTES-EMPTY, a house rule): where the meeting decided nothing under an item, say so in the item's notes.

Run the check with --in and the working folder. It then reads the person's own files there and asks, once and never as a fail (NOTES-FLOOR): which e-mail addresses, numbers, dates and amounts the notes hold and the page does not, which of them the page carries changed, and which figures the minutes state that the notes do not. Answer the question once: put each on the page as the notes have it, or say in your reply why it does not belong there. Never change one to shorten the list.

Work in the working folder, the folder the person is working in: write the data file there, run the script from there by its full path (<skill folder> is the folder this file is in) and give the output a path there. The builder refuses an output path inside the library's own folder, where the person never looks; hand back the path in the working folder.

Look for company.json in the working folder first: it holds the company's own particulars, written once (name, address, VAT and register numbers, registered office, share capital, bank account). The builder fills from it what the data file leaves out of the sender, stops when the two disagree, and the check fails a page whose sender disagrees with it (COMPANY-FILE). When the folder has none and the person gives their company's particulars, write it once: python3 <skill folder>/../_shared/company.py make company.json name="..." country=.. street="..." postcode=.. city=.. vat_id=.. register_number=..; it says which particulars that country's company law still wants. One the files do not give is declared with unknown=<key>, never made up.

What minutes record

From Robert's Rules of Order Revised (1915), section 60, which is in the public domain: the kind of meeting, the body, the date and place, the chair and the secretary, whether the last minutes were approved, every main motion that was not withdrawn with who moved it (not who seconded it) and whether it was adopted or lost, the counted vote when there was one, the hours of opening and adjournment, and the secretary's signature. Leave out speeches, praise and blame. That printing is not the current edition: Robert's Rules of Order Newly Revised, 12th edition (2020), is under copyright and is not used here. A club whose bylaws adopt it may differ in detail; say so when the person's bylaws name it.

A company's law asks for more, and the script writes it:

Nordic minutes open with the business their meetings record as items of their own (in Finland the opening, the quorum and the choice of checker; at a Norwegian or Danish general meeting the choice of who leads). Dates are written out (20. oktober 2026, 20 October 2026, October 20, 2026, 23.4.2026, 20 oktober 2026, 20. Jänner 2026 in Austria, 14 de octubre de 2026, 14 ottobre 2026, 14 października 2026); times are 16.00 in the Nordic languages, 2:00 p.m. in the US, 16 h 30 in Canadian French, 9:05 in Spanish and 16:30 in Dutch, German, Belgian French, Italian and Polish. Every label and signature role is in the minutes' language.

The Danish rules were read again on 2026-10-09 against the four acts that have amended selskabsloven since its 2025 consolidation (lov nr. 710, 1648 and 1765 of 2025 and nr. 729 of 2026): none changes § 101 or § 128.

What the check cannot see: that the minutes were drawn up within a month, kept for ten years or put before the shareholders within two weeks; that an Austrian GmbH sent every shareholder a copy by registered letter; that a Belgian or Dutch company's articles ask for more; that the full text of a Spanish meeting's call is the one sent, or that the acta was entered in the book; that an Italian verbale was drawn up without delay; that a Polish attendance list carries its signatures. The Spanish register rules bind only for entry in the Registro Mercantil (art. 97.3). Say so when it matters.

The Spanish, Italian and Polish articles were read on 2026-10-09 and 2026-10-10 in the official consolidated texts: the BOE (Ley de Sociedades de Capital, last updated 19 December 2025, arts. 192, 202, 203 and 250 unchanged when read again on 2026-10-20; Reglamento del Registro Mercantil, 14 June 2023), Normattiva (Codice civile, text in force) and ISAP (Kodeks spółek handlowych, unified text as of 3 June 2026).

Say what passed, not more

Tell the person which checks the minutes passed and against which source. Never call the minutes approved, certified or legally valid; they are approved when the people named sign them, and give no legal advice.

Sources

The official text of each law, as in force on 2026-10-20: