de Are you tired of long meetings that never bring results? It doesn’t matter if the participants were actively sharing ideas or just sitting quietly and listening carefully. In the end, people will still forget what was discussed within a few days.
Does this sound familiar? Unfortunately, this happens in many companies that don’t create meeting minutes after each meeting. Statistics show that only 37% of companies use them.
Meeting minute templates are documents that capture the key points of a meeting: who attended, what was discussed, what decisions were made, and who is responsible for what.
In this article, we'll explain how to take proper meeting minutes, why they're important, and how they can help your team work faster and more efficiently. By the end, you’ll find some useful templates for different types of meetings.
Which are the most common meeting minutes templates you should have handy
Every department should have templates for at least the five most common types of meetings:
Weekly Team Meetings
These happen every week. During them, teams discuss what was accomplished in the previous period, what tasks still need to be done, and assign responsibilities for each task.
Project Meetings
These are held to discuss a specific project. They are often longer meetings where brainstorming happens, and tasks are set at a high level.
Client Meetings
These meetings are used to identify the client’s needs. It’s important to record everything to ensure you know exactly what was promised and the deadlines for each task.
Strategic Meetings
These are focused on the future of the company. Goals and plans are discussed: where the company is heading, what needs improvement, and which important decisions should be made to drive growth.
Job Interviews
In these meetings, you evaluate a potential candidate and assess whether they’re a good fit for your company, noting their strengths and weaknesses.
Meeting Minutes Template Structure
Let’s go over how to correctly create a basic meeting minutes template and what essential fields it should include. A well-structured template simplifies the process of running a meeting several times over.
Attendance: This field is used to record the names of people who attended or were absent from the meeting. It helps avoid confusion when later trying to recall who missed the meeting.
Main points of discussion: In this field, briefly summarize the key topics, proposed ideas, and decisions mentioned in the agenda, as well as the conclusions reached by the team.
Outcomes: This is the most important field—a summary of the agreements reached. These notes provide an overview of the decisions made and the next steps.
Tasks and deadlines: In this field, you can list all assigned tasks with clear deadlines and responsible individuals. This ensures that at the next meeting, no one can avoid the question, "Why isn’t it done?".
Notes and comments: This section is optional but can be helpful when addressing complex issues. For example, it allows you to note who proposed the best idea.
Meeting recording: This field can include a link to an audio or video recording attached to the minutes. It is especially useful for those who missed the meeting.
A properly created meeting minutes template ensures that you always have a place to document all key points and tasks.
Meeting Minute Example
Here’s what a basic meeting minutes template should look like:
All the Details of Filling Out Meeting Minutes
It might seem that filling out meeting minutes and summarizing its results is simple, but this is not always the case. If you have never used meeting minutes before, we recommend familiarizing yourself with the important details we have highlighted for you.
Step-by-Step Guide to Implementing Meeting Minutes
Step 1: Prepare Before the Meeting
We recommend creating an agenda in advance, sending it along with the meeting invitation to all participants, and making sure everyone knows when and where the meeting will take place.
To be sure that all participants know which meeting room the event will take place in, it’s better to use a meeting room booking system. It will automatically add the meeting and reserved room information to the schedule for all participants.
A meeting room booking system not only makes the meeting organization process transparent but also significantly simplifies it. Managers can plan meetings with the confidence that a room will always be available, and employees won’t have to search for a suitable room at the last minute.
Step 2: Appoint a person responsible for taking minutes
The most important step before starting a meeting is to assign someone responsible for taking the meeting minutes (this can be an assistant or a team member). Without this step, there is a risk of missing important points, as you will have to both manage the meeting and take notes at the same time.
If you don’t have someone who can take responsibility for the minutes, don’t worry. AI tools are excellent at handling these tasks. We recommend using one of the following: Fireflies.ai, Otter.ai, or Sembly.ai.
If you choose the AI method, after the meeting, you simply need to upload the video recording of the meeting and the pre-prepared meeting minutes template into the virtual assistant. The AI will analyze the recording, automatically highlight key points, and fill in the relevant fields in the template.
Step 3: Take Notes on Key Points
When the meeting begins, keep the agenda and task list in front of you. Ask direct questions to the team about how their work is progressing and whether they are meeting deadlines. During the meeting, ask the designated person to record key points, decisions made, and any issues that arise.
Here’s an example of meeting minutes:
- Task: Prepare 5 marketing hypotheses for Eric
- Progress: In progress
- What happened: Five hypotheses were listed, but only four were tested
- Problems: Additional budget is needed, waiting for approval from the finance department
Step 4: Review the Completed Minutes
After the meeting ends, the completed minutes must be reviewed before sharing them with all participants. Check the following:
- Are the tasks clear with set deadlines and responsible team members?
- Are all sections of the minutes filled out?
- If you are unsure about anything, check with your colleagues within the first two hours to clarify their points.
- Open the meeting recording file and make sure it works.
Step 5: Share the Minutes
Once you have completed the review of the meeting minutes and had them approved by the necessary people, share them with all participants. Make sure everyone has access to the minutes.
You can also schedule the next meeting right away, where you will check the progress of the tasks recorded in the minutes.
Tips for Quick and Efficient Meeting Minutes
Sometimes meetings move quickly, and the person responsible for taking minutes may struggle to keep up. For example, they might get confused by terminology or have difficulty finding the right field in the meeting minutes template to record the information.
To avoid this, try to manage the flow of the meeting. Here are a few tips on how to do that:
- Focus on tasks: Ask the note-taker to only record information related to tasks and decisions. Don’t try to capture every word—just highlight the key points.
- Speak clearly: Ask the team to use simple terms and explain any abbreviations, as the person taking minutes might get confused by them.
- Watch the time: Allocate 3-5 minutes per topic to keep the meeting from dragging on. Encourage team members to answer questions directly.
- Summarize: Before ending the meeting, briefly review the main conclusions to ensure that all tasks and responsibilities are correctly assigned.
- Adjust the template: After every few meetings, analyze what important sections need to be added to the meeting minutes template.
By following these steps and tips, you’ll always be confident that your meeting minutes are filled out correctly and will be useful for the entire team!
5 Most Popular Meeting Minutes Templates
We have prepared the 5 most popular meeting minutes templates for you. They will help you easily record important points, tasks, and decisions during any type of meeting. Choose the template you need and click the link to download.
Meeting Minutes Summary
The main goal of meeting minutes is to prevent confusion regarding tasks and deadlines after the meeting. Minutes help structure the work, avoid unnecessary discussions, and prevent future disputes.
When creating a meeting minutes template, be sure to include the following fields:
- Attendance list: Who was present and who wasn’t.
- Main discussion points: The key topics covered and decisions made.
- Discussion outcomes: What was decided and the next steps.
- Tasks and deadlines: Who’s responsible for what and by when.
- Comments: Additional notes if needed.
- Meeting recording: A link to the audio or video recording of the meeting.
Before the meeting organization, assign someone to take a meeting minutes sample so that important points aren’t missed. After the meeting, review the minutes, get them approved by the manager, and share them with everyone involved.
