The three best meeting minutes templates for professionals

Meetings have become an integral part of every business. According to statistics, 37% of employees spend 4-12 hours per week attending meetings, taking up 30% of their time. The frustrating fact behind this is that 70% of people consider meetings to be a waste of time, but thorough preparation and proper actions taken during and after a gathering can help avoid corroborating these sad figures. Meeting minutes are one of the activities companies implemented to control these gatherings and their outcomes, helping to keep everything structured and organised, and thus keeping everyone on the same page. Here are some ideas on how to make them more efficient and review basic templates that will help handle meeting minutes like a pro.

What is a meeting minute?

It’s a concise summary of a meeting distributed to everyone it may concern after the gathering. The primary purposes of meeting minutes are:

• Provide an overview of the gathering: goals, results, assigned tasks, date, time, location and participants
• Notify all participants and those who missed the meeting of the results
• Serve as a legal record of the meeting and decisions made (especially for those events where votes were taken or crucial resolutions were passed)

A meeting minute is not a transcription of who said what. It’s an official document providing the event’s main outcomes and agenda. It can be formal or informal, depending on the meeting type. The latter relates to daily gatherings or general staff meetings. On the other hand, formal includes board or monthly executive meetings. The structure, format and language can vary.

How to efficiently take meeting minutes

This is a trick question. Firstly, it’s necessary to figure out how to make the process of working on meeting minutes minimally time-consuming for the employee but still yield efficient results. Secondly, it’s worth understanding what markers make this document useful.

Whether implementing the practice of meeting minutes or already using them, employees need to follow these tips to make the process as useful as possible.

• Develop templates. It’s possible to customise any simple meeting minutes template for any needs and the types of meetings a company holds regularly. This will take a few hours but will make life easier for employees during and after each meeting.
• Don’t neglect technology. It’s time to forget about the recorder and notepad and take care of employees’ productivity. Today’s video call apps have a recording feature, and some even offer to create a meeting brief, highlighting the most important aspects of the conversation (Whoosh, for example). It makes employees’ lives easier to automate the processes where possible.
• Print and fill out (this can be done online) a meeting minutes template during the meeting. This will help provide a ready draft before the gathering is even over. There will be no need to sit and recall key points later, or any risk of forgetting something.
• Be an active listener. Sure, meetings can sometimes work like a sleeping pill. The person who has to take minutes of a meeting should catch every word to be able to convey the information to others.
• Write succinctly and briefly, using acronyms and cutting down on words. Everything can be edited later. It’s a good idea to write in a way that can be understood even by those not present at the meeting.

​​Effective meeting minutes should have the following characteristics:

1. Adhere to a single, simple structure that is easy to follow
2. Be concise and straightforward, without any extra details
3. Calling to further actions and setting deadlines for their implementation

Meeting minutes templates

Regardless of the gathering type, any meeting minutes should include:

• The date, time, and location of the meeting
• Participants (optionally, their roles)
• The meeting agenda, topics for discussion and decisions made
• The tasks assigned (if any), their assignees and deadlines
• The scheduled time of the next meeting (if approved)

Here are three basic templates that will make taking minutes for meetings a breeze.

Board meeting minute template

[Name of the company]

Title of the meeting

Call to order: [Meeting organiser] called to order the regular board meeting of [Company Name] at [time] [AM]/[PM] on DD/MM/YYYY in [location]

Attendants:

• Voting Names:
  • [name]
  • [name]
• Staff members:
  • [name]
  • [name]
• Guests:
  • [name]
  • [name]
• Members not attending:
  • [name]
  • [name]

Approval of minutes: The proposal for approval was submitted on DD/MM/YYYY by [name] and sustained by [name].

Voting members’ reports:

• Report topic – brief description
• Report topic – brief description

Other reports:

• Report topic – brief description
• Report topic – brief description

Decisions made:

• Result
• Result

Future action steps:

• [Name] is responsible for [assignment] to be performed until DD//MM/YYYY;
• [Name] is responsible for [assignment] to be performed until DD//MM/YYYY.

Announcement: The next board meeting will take place on DD/MM/YYYY at [time] [AM]/[PM].

Closing: [Meeting organiser] adjourned the board meeting at [time meeting ended] [AM]/[PM].

Formal meeting minute template

Meeting Title/Type

Date: DD/MM/YYYY

Time: __:__ [AM]/[PM]

Location:

Participants:

1. [Name]
2. [Name]
3. [Name]

Meeting objectives:

• Goal 1
• Goal 2

Discussion panel:

• Topic 1
  • [brief description]
• Topic 2
  • [brief description]
• Topic 3
  • [brief description]

Outcomes:

• [Results achieved]

Further actions:

• [name] assigned [task] to be done till DD/MM/YYYY.

Announcement: The next meeting will take place on DD/MM/YYYY at [time] [AM]/[PM].

Team meeting minutes template

Meeting Title/Type

Date: DD/MM/YYYY

Time: __:__ [AM]/[PM]

Location:

Meeting called by: [Name]

Participants:

1. [Name]
2. [Name]
3. [Name]

Agenda Item 1: [State agenda items here]

Presenter: [Name]

Discussion: [Write a summary here]

Conclusion: [Write the outcomes]

Further actions:

• [Task], [Assignee name], [Deadline]

Agenda Item 2: [State agenda items here]

Presenter: [Name]

Discussion: [Write a summary here]

Conclusion: [Write the outcomes]

Further actions:

• [Task], [Assignee name], [Deadline]

Next meeting: The next meeting will be held on DD/MM/YYYY at [time] [AM]/[PM].

Using one of these primary meeting minutes templates and adapting them for the company’s needs will make it possible to handle this routine task like a pro.

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