Latest News

Do you know how to write minutes of meeting? If not, then you need to know that taking down meeting minutes may feel mundane or critical, depending on what’s on the agenda, but it’s always essential that your writing is clear and accurate.

However you feel about your role as a transcriber, recording effective meeting minutes is of long-term importance for any organization with meetings.

In this guide, we’ll discuss how to write meeting minutes like a pro so everyone involved understands what occurred during the meeting just by reading the minutes. Here are some tips and templates to make writing meeting minutes easy.

What are Meeting Minutes?

Meeting minutes are the written account of a meeting or hearing. Minutes are usually arranged and formal so that they can be shared after the meeting and serve as historical documents in the future.

For those who could not make it to the meeting, minutes bring them up to speed. Minutes also offer accountability for action items that were deliberated during the meeting.

More importantly, if an organization enters into any sort of legal case, minutes serve as an official record proving due diligence, ethics, and bylaw compliance.

Who Takes Meeting Minutes?

The secretary most often writes meeting minutes. Nonprofits, government entities, schools, public companies, and trade unions are usually needed to record official meeting minutes.

However, many other organisations also use meeting minutes to maintain an official record.

How to Write Meeting Minutes

The format and content of meeting minutes will vary depending on the organization and how it’s structured. Regardless, you should always include the basics, like date, time, and those in attendance.

But plenty of organizations will also benefit from having other, optional items like supplementary documents and action items. Read on to find out what to add to your meeting minutes.

8 Basic Elements of Meeting Minutes

These are the important items to include in your meeting minutes:

1. Date

2. Time

3. Location

4. Participants

5. Topics discussed

6. Motions

7. Voting outcomes

8. Next meeting date and place

What Else Should Meeting Minutes Include?

Most organizations will include at least one or two other elements in their meeting notes. Beyond the essentials, your meeting notes can include and be structured in whatever way best suits your organization’s needs.

Here are some custom elements you can add to your meeting minutes:

1. Supplementary documents

2. Action items

3. Purpose of meeting

4. Items to be discussed next time

5. Project status updates and voting results

6. Next steps, like research and follow-ups

7. A section to define attendees who are guests, nonvoters, or speakers

8. Corrections or amendments to previous meeting minutes

Meeting Minutes Template

Meeting Minutes Template

Meeting Name:

Meeting Date:

Meeting Time:

Location:

Meeting Leader:

Meeting Participants:

Meeting Agenda:

[Topic 1] [Topic 2] [Topic 3]

Meeting Notes:

[Topic 1]:

[Bullet point summary of discussion] [Decisions made, if any] [Action items, if any]

[Topic 2]:

[Bullet point summary of discussion] [Decisions made, if any] [Action items, if any]

[Topic 3]:

[Bullet point summary of discussion] [Decisions made, if any] [Action items, if any]

Meeting Summary:

Key takeaways from the meeting

Next steps

Action Items:

[Action item 1] Assigned to: [Name] Due date: [Date] [Action item 2] Assigned to: [Name] Due date: [Date] Meeting Approval:

Motion to approve the meeting minutes:

Made by: [Name] Seconded by: [Name] Carried/Defeated:
Meeting Notes Author:

[Your name]

Date:

[Today’s date]

Minutes of meetings are written documents that contain all the deliberations that take place in a meeting. It has to be comprehensive and detailed enough to capture the full discussion of a meeting.

The secretary of the organisation must write minutes because it is his or her duty. In the absence of the secretary, the assistant or member can act in that regard based on the decision of the chairman.