11.26 Indirect speech

Bear in mind that minutes are a record of what was said at some point in the past. Therefore indirect (reported) speech is called for. This involves placing verbs in a past or conditional tense, if they express statements by persons at the meeting (e.g. said, not says; had forecast, not has forecast; would decide, not will decide).

However, the present or future forms of verbs may be used for general statements of fact not directly attributed to participants (e.g. Alberta requires a finance officer, in point 5 of the model minutes). In this example there is no specific source for the statement, other than the minute-writer. See 8.04 Indirect (reported) speech for more information on indirect speech.

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