My board doesn't want to be recorded. But without a recording the minutes take forever. What do I do?

Our board has a policy stating that we will not record meetings so members can speak freely. I understand the reason but it means I have to reconstruct everything from memory and notes afterward. Last month it took me four or five hours. That's time I should be spending on grant writing. Is there any way to change their minds?

Four or five hours reconstructing a meeting is not a minutes problem. It's a policy problem. And every hour you spend on it is an hour you're not writing grants, which is something your board actually cares about deeply, whether they've connected those dots yet or not.

The "we don't record so people can speak freely" instinct comes from a reasonable place. Board members sometimes need to think out loud, float ideas they're not ready to commit to, or have frank conversations about sensitive matters. Nobody wants those moments showing up somewhere they shouldn't.

Here's what to bring to your board: the recording doesn't have to be permanent. In fact, it shouldn't be. The right policy is record the meeting, use the recording to produce accurate minutes, delete it once the minutes are approved. No archive. No searchable record of every half-formed thought. Just a tool that exists long enough to do its job.

When you frame it that way — "we record it, we use it, we delete it" — I would expect most objections to dissolve. That should reveal that the resistance was never really about the recording. It was about what happens to it afterward.

If your board still resists, ask them directly what they're worried about. Usually it's one of two things: a sensitive personnel matter or a member who says things in meetings they wouldn't want attributed to them. Both are solvable without abandoning recording entirely.

And if none of that works, try this: tell them how long it actually takes you. Then tell them what you could be doing with that time instead. Boards that won't budge on recording policy sometimes move very quickly when they realize the choice is between a deletion policy and a grant deadline.