July 2026 COMma: Meeting Minutes and Artificial Intelligence for COMs

How does our COM maintain confidentiality when it comes to meeting minutes? What should we include in the minutes, and who gets to see them? Our COM discovered that our MID used artificial intelligence to write their ordination paper – we were caught off guard! What should we know? What should we do?

The MESA Team is excited to share two newly developed resources for COMs in response to your queries and experiences. Standards for Committee on Ministry Meeting Minutes is a new resource that you can find in the Committee on Ministry Resource Library under “Resources for Healthy COMs.” Meeting minutes are critical tools for documentation and communication for COMs. Knowing what to document and how to store and share meeting minutes with utmost care and confidentiality is essential to the integrity of your COM. We hope this new resource will provide relevant guidance that enables greater confidence in best practices in minute taking.

Artificial intelligence is a pervasive topic in all aspects of society and COMs are wise to be in on the conversation. Also found in the Committee on Ministry Resource Library is a new Resource for COMs on Artificial Intelligence. This resource address AI and COMs in two ways: by offering resources for education on AI for COMs and then guidance so that your COM can develop an AI use policy that reflects your values and practices. There are a variety of ways that COMs may approach the use of AI, and the MESA Team encourages your COM to begin or further the conversation.

Some questions for further reflection:

• After reading the Standards for Committee on Ministry Meeting Minutes resource, how would you assess your current practices for minute taking? Are there some aspects that might benefit from further conversation or adjustment in practices?
• Has the topic of artificial intelligence use come up on your COM? In what ways? What might be a “next best step” on this topic for your COM?
• After exploring the Manual on Ministry Section Three Resources and the Committee on Ministry Resource Library, are there other resources that you can think of that would benefit your COM? Send your ideas and questions to the Rev. Melanie Oommen, Minister for Committee on Ministry Development and Leadership at oommenm@ucc.org.