#02 What I learned from converting all past general meeting minutes and other documents into PDF

After being appointed as a board member, I had some time before the first board meeting. I decided to use that time to read through past minutes and general meeting materials, so I pulled eight years' worth of documents from the bookshelf—but there was more than I expected, and honestly, I wasn't sure where to start.

However, if I was going to take the time to look through them, I wanted to keep them in a format that could be used later. With that in mind, I decided to convert everything into PDFs and create an archive.

I had already gotten rid of my scanner, so I hesitated for a moment, but when I checked my smartphone, I realized I could convert documents directly to PDF using the camera function in Google Drive.

Once I actually tried it, I found it to be extremely convenient. I could just photograph the paper documents, save them as PDFs, and have them stored directly in the cloud.

This task took about four days, but as a result, I was able to digitize the majority of the past documents.

Furthermore, when I checked the materials for the first large-scale renovation conducted in 2017 (two binders' worth, a significant volume), I found that an "electronic delivery CD" had been saved, allowing me to import the construction company and consultant documents as data. The organized table of contents was also very helpful.

The next thing I did was organize the folder structure.
I categorized them as follows.

01 General Meeting
02 Board of Directors Meeting
03 Management Bylaws
04 Notifications
05 Various Drawings
06 Large-scale Renovation
07 Renovation Committee
08 Periodic Inspections, Cleaning, and Work Reports
09 Contracts and Insurance
10 External Meeting Room Related
11 Other/Unsorted Materials

As a result, an archive of about 8GB was completed.

Google Drive's search function is excellent, and I can find the necessary documents immediately. I feel that having just my smartphone is enough to attend board meetings.

Through this task, I felt strongly that organizing past documents, while time-consuming, is a highly effective task.

By understanding the materials in advance, I can deepen my understanding at board meetings and reduce the number of irrelevant questions.

I hope this will be of some help to others who serve as board members.