Meeting Sign-In Sheet is the document used to capture the names and contact information of meeting attendees. – Having a clear record of who attended meetings is a vital part of the documentation process. Preparation of the Sign-In Sheet prior to the meeting accomplishes several benefits:
- attendee presence will be documented
- avoidance of the needless distraction of someone scrambling to start circulation of a blank piece of paper to record the attendees after the meeting is underway
- establishes a desirable atmosphere that good preparation for the meeting has occurred
Towards the end of the meeting, the leader should offer an opportunity for anyone having not signed the Sign-In Sheet to do so.
At the end of the meeting, the Sign-In Sheet should be reproduced and distributed to all attendees so that they can immediately begin communicating with each other.
Those that attend telephonically should be identified as such on the Sign-In Sheet. For one-time meetings, a simple sign-in sheet works well. For meetings that are frequently attended by the same people, their name and contact information can be preprinted on the Sign-In Sheet, provided that a column next to each name is available for the attendee to initial indicating his/her attendance. A third type of Sign-In Sheet is for use when attendees are pre-registered, as with a seminar.
