Minute taking is part science and part art—anyone can take minutes, but taking good minutes is much harder than it looks. The Condominium Act identifies minutes as core records of the Corporation, but provides little guidance on what should be included in or excluded from the minutes.

The Condominium Authority Tribunal (CAT) has provided some clarity as to what constitutes “adequate” minutes. In 2021 ONCAT 32, the Tribunal stated:

“It is well settled law at this point that the purpose of minutes is to document a board’s business transactions and to show how the corporation’s affairs are controlled, managed and administered. There is an implied requirement that the minutes be accurate, but the Act does not impose a standard of perfection. Minutes are not required to be a verbatim account of a meeting.”

In 2021 ONCAT 72, the Tribunal stated: “…an adequate record of a board meeting is a document with sufficient detail to allow the Owners to understand what is going on in their corporation, how decisions are being made, when the decisions are made, and what the financial basis is for the decisions.”

With such limited guidelines, how is a Condominium Manager to decide how best to keep adequate minutes? Here are some options, along with their benefits and risks.

Board Secretary: 
According to the Condominium Authority of Ontario (CAO), the Board Secretary is responsible for ensuring that “meeting minutes are recorded properly, accurately, and that they are balanced.” See “What Condo Boards Do”. (www.condoauthorityontario.ca/condo-living/roles-responsibilities/what-condo-boards-do). The benefit of having the Board Secretary take the minutes is that there is no additional cost incurred. The risks are that the Secretary may not be able to fully participate in the meeting while also documenting it; they may not have the skill and experience to know what to include or exclude, or how to document contentious issues; and their own biases may impact the accuracy of the minutes. 

Management: 
Some property management companies offer minute-taking as a service, either having the Manager or their administrator take the minutes. The benefit is that no additional cost is incurred, however the risks are significant. They would have the same challenges as the Board Secretary would, and there would be an inherent conflict of interest. 

Artificial Intelligence (AI): 
AI is less expensive than professional human Recording Secretaries—at least initially. If you factor in the amount of time spent correcting AI transcripts, something the Condominium Manager is typically tasked with, the true cost can be much higher. The quality of AI minutes is still poor, as anyone who has read an AI transcript of an AGM knows, though it is improving. AI introduces significant risks because, while anyone can misunderstand a word or make a typographical error, AI actually hallucinates, meaning it makes up information that is not based on fact. The CAT has noted (2025 ONCAT 207): 
“It is a well‐known concern that generative AI use in a tribunal context creates a risk because the models have been known to create false submissions. These risks can be reduced by carefully reviewing the product of generative AI and ensuring they are accurate.”

Further, there are concerns about whether using AI raises privacy issues, as a corporation’s confidential information discussed at a meeting is sent to “the cloud,”which usually means servers outside of Canada, and then becomes fodder for future AI use, without the Corporation’s knowledge or consent. Data breaches can occur, leaving the Corporation and Owners’ information vulnerable. Using a “closed” AI system can reduce those risks, as they draw only from the Corporation’s records, and the Corporation’s data is, theoretically, not accessible to other AI tools. However, poor accuracy remains a problem. AI struggles with voices speaking over each other, strong accents, and industry-specific terminology. 

There are many benefits to hiring an independent, professional Recording Secretary:

• Impartiality, no hidden agenda. 
• The skill and experience to condense lengthy discussions into concise overviews of issues and options considered, to provide context for decisions.
• Understanding the minutes document the collective decisions of the board and should not be a verbatim transcript.
• Skill at documenting sensitive or contentious issues and understanding what not to include.
• Their only focus is documenting the meeting, so they are not distracted by trying to participate in discussions.
• An understanding of what items are considered private and confidential under the Act.

In the event of a legal dispute with an Owner, Resident or external party, the minutes can be trusted and an independent and official record of the Corporation.

The risk of hiring an independent professional Recording Secretary is that not all Recording Secretary companies are created equal. Anyone can call themselves a Recording Secretary; there are no regulations and no standard education or training required, so quality can vary.

What to Look for in an Independent Professional Recording Secretary Service Provider

Experience: look for a service provider who has substantial experience taking minutes for condominiums, not only for Board meetings but for Annual General Meetings, Shared Facilities Committee meetings, Requisition meetings, Turnovers, Owners’ meetings—any meeting your corporation might need documented.

References: Ask your service provider to provide references, preferably from condominiums that have used their services for several years.

Standards: The service provider should have a standard format for their minutes, preferably vetted by a condominium lawyer.

Quality Control: The service provider should have editors who proofread draft minutes to correct any grammatical or formatting errors and ensure the content is clear. 

Confidentiality: All Recording Secretaries should sign a confidentiality agreement to protect the confidentiality of clients’ business. 

Training: Ask the service provider what training they provide for new Recording Secretaries. They should have a formal process in which trainees take minutes alongside experienced Recording Secretaries, and their minutes are reviewed with them to help improve their quality. While anybody can take notes, taking minutes is a skill that requires training.

Capacity: What happens if your scheduled Recording Secretary is sick? The service provider should have enough capacity to have backup on all but the busiest nights of the month.

Support: How can you schedule a Recording Secretary? Will you have the same person attend most of your meetings? Who do you contact if you have to change your meeting date? Is there someone who can answer your questions about minutes and invoices? How responsive are they—do they answer your emails quickly, or does it take them several hours or days to respond?

Tenure: What is the average tenure of the Recording Secretaries? Some turnover is to be expected, as it is usually a part-time job, but if none have been with the company for more than a year, that may impact quality and service. 

You’ll know you have good, quality minutes if they capture the relevant information: participants, date, time, location, decisions, actions, etc., clearly, in professional, neutral language that is grammatically correct and accurate.

Amy Riddell is the Founder and CEO of INaMINUTE, a member of ACMO for over a decade. INaMINUTE completes quality minutes for over 500 Corporations monthly with a skilled team of over 80 Recording Secretaries.
www.ina60.ca
 

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