When board members discuss business plans and strategies, they often share information that will greatly influence future decisions. With so much at stake, preserving each conversation as a complete and accurate board meeting transcript can be critical.
More and more companies are coming to understand the value of transcription services for their board meetings. They’re also considering how to produce transcripts in a way that not only captures their dialogue but also protects the integrity and sensitivity of the information they’re sharing.
To ensure professional, accurate production of boardroom transcripts, outsourcing this work to a professional board meeting transcription service is best. As Verbit works with leading businesses to support their transcription efforts, here are a few important considerations we’d recommend making for the most effective results.
Table of Contents:
- Is transcribing a board meeting legal?
- Outsourcing board meeting transcription proves best
- How do you transcribe a board meeting?
- More on transcription for remote board meetings
- Are there alternatives to verbatim board meeting transcription services?
Is transcribing a board meeting legal?
To start, you may have heard that recording a conversation in certain circumstances is illegal. Certainly, secretly recording people can lead to legal ramifications. However, in the case of advisory board meetings transcription, you can avoid any of these issues by simply notifying participants that you’re making a recording.
Once you’ve put everyone on notice, you can legally create a recording and a board meeting transcript. In the case of remote meetings, platforms like Zoom inform participants when recordings are in progress so that no one’s caught off guard by the fact that you’re keeping a record. On the flip side, your board members are likely to be grateful to have a transcript they can go back to and reference post-call.
Outsourcing board meeting transcription proves best
Accurately capturing conversations verbatim, whether live or recorded, can be incredibly difficult. Asking an employee to preserve complete or verbatim records of your board meetings can inevitably result in losing important information or the misinterpretation of board members’ statements. Since your transcripts are likely to advise critical business decisions, transcript exclusions or errors can create big problems.
Asking employees without transcription training to transcribe your meetings manually not only leaves room for error but is incredibly time-consuming. It can take anywhere from four to 10 hours for a person to transcribe just one hour of audio because of all of the rewinding necessary to get things down perfectly. Not to mention, your employees are likely to find this type of work frustrating and tedious. Outsourcing advisory board meetings transcription is a great way to improve the quality of your records while allowing your employees to focus on tasks that aren’t appropriate for outsourcing and that need their attention. Luckily, outsourcing your transcription work is simple.
How do you transcribe a board meeting?
The methods that business leaders once relied on to transcribe audio to text are long gone. Today’s board meeting transcription services have evolved to make the process much easier. Automatic speech recognition (ASR) is now supporting the transcription process, making it more efficient. However, when it comes to board meetings, relying on ASR alone is quite risky. ASR still lacks the level of accuracy needed to preserve a fully accurate record of your meetings.
Verbit solves this problem by employing both ASR and the care of professional transcribers and editors to review the results to ensure they’re accurate and complete. The final product is a high-quality, verbatim record of your meeting that you can confidently reference. Additionally, with Verbit, this method can create live transcriptions of your meetings that participants can reference in real-time.
The board meeting transcription services you decide to use should be able to handle both live and recorded meeting needs.
Live board meeting transcription services
If you decide to provide live meeting transcription, services like Verbit’s transcription software and professional transcribers will create a real-time transcript. It can be provided for both in-person board meetings, as well as remote ones. The transcription can appear on screen within Zoom, Webex or other platforms you may be using. This feature can be particularly useful for participants who may need to tune in without the sound, allowing them to follow along in real time.
After the meeting concludes, Verbit will provide a fully proofed complete transcript in your preferred format. The process is easy and precludes the need to have someone present to take notes or produce meeting minutes. Plus, Verbit’s transcripts provide helpful features for users, who can make notes within them, highlight for referencing and more.
Post-production board meeting transcription services
Sometimes a live transcript isn’t necessary for a meeting. In those cases, you can record the audio or video and then upload your file to Verbit’s platform. Verbit will then produce a transcript of that meeting and return the file to you, potentially in as little as four hours.
More on transcription for remote board meetings
The modern corporate world involves many remote meetings where participants can sign on from anywhere across the globe. Whether you’re connecting via Zoom, Microsoft Teams or other conferencing platforms, it’s important to use a transcription service that integrates into the platform you’re using to easily produce a complete board meeting transcript.
Using live features is particularly helpful in this setting. Generating a real-time interactive transcript will help people follow along and catch up if they missed something important. For instance, if people join the meeting late or if the sound or Wi-Fi cuts for a moment, the participant can use the live transcript to review past statements without interrupting anyone.
After the meeting and once you receive the transcript, you’ll also be able to search the document for keywords or parts you want to reference. Users can then jump easily to the corresponding point in the video or audio file. As a result, finding the information and statements you and your board members are looking for is more efficient than ever.
Additionally, by taking a few steps to prepare for these meetings, you can prepare the transcribers or software that you’re using to make the process and results smoother each time.
Look for partners who continue to improve on transcript accuracy
One of the reasons that Verbit is able to offer accurate results with rapid turnaround times is that it’s possible to pre-train its software. As a result, transcribers can work with niche terminology and unique names that you anticipate using.
Verbit’s glossary feature allows its customers and users to input terms of art, acronyms and the correct spelling of participants’ names so that the transcript doesn’t include confusing errors or misinterpretations. There’s nothing worse than having a board member’s name appear misspelled on screen. Be sure to use a system, such as Verbit’s, which can learn new words and correct its mistakes over time to create a smoother process.
This feature is especially important if you have board members who have accents, speak quickly or otherwise create challenges for transcribers. No one’s voice should be excluded or their statements misconstrued because of an inaccurate transcript.
Are there alternatives to verbatim board meeting transcription services?
If you’re not interested in capturing verbatim board meeting transcripts, you might want to opt for a different type of service. Professional note-taking is one option that preserves important information while cutting out any small talk or unimportant aspects of the conversation. Some business leaders prefer using this type of service to maintain records of their meetings.
Professional note-takers undergo training to capture only the important information. It is critical, though, to be sure you have these notetakers sign privacy or non-disclosure agreements to ensure they’re protecting your confidential information.
Privacy concerns and professional board meeting transcription
If you’re concerned about your advisory board meetings transcription services causing the unauthorized release of confidential information, make sure you’re partnering with a company that is protecting its data. In fact, it’s a good idea to check that every outside vendor you employ is complying with appropriate security standards.
Looking at vendors’ SOC 2 reports can help you ensure that they’re maintaining the appropriate level of privacy and security protections. Verbit understands the importance of these security concerns and maintains SOC 2 compliance for clients who need a transcription service that can handle sensitive information.
Board meeting transcripts are an important tool that many professionals and their teams are coming to rely on. It’s important to stress that when considering board meetings, the right transcription solution is a professional one. You cannot risk having anything less than accurate, reliable records from these important conversations.
Verbit is partnering with leading businesses to provide them with highly accurate and reliable transcripts of their meetings. As a customer-first brand, Verbit’s technology and teams are specialized to meet each customer’s unique transcription requirements and preferences. Contact us to learn more about how we can customize our transcription solutions to support your business’s board meeting transcription needs.