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A meeting minutes template is a ready-made outline for a meeting's minutes. It lists attendees, absences, topics, decisions and action items, as the example of meeting minutes below shows. Secretaries, board members and team leads use it, especially for formal meetings with votes.
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An example of meeting minutes shows a finished set of minutes: the meeting details, who attended, the topics discussed, the decisions and votes, and the action items in the order a reader looks for them. The sample below uses made-up names and a weekly team meeting.
Weekly Team Planning Meeting: Minutes
Notice what the sample leaves out: side conversations, jokes and the full back-and-forth of the discussion. Each decision is a single sentence, and each action item names a person and a due date.
Formal meeting minutes follow a fixed order: call to order, roll call, approval of the previous minutes, reports, old business, new business, motions and votes, announcements and adjournment. Boards, committees and associations use this format because readers can find any item in the same place every time.
A formal minutes entry quotes the motion exactly and gives the vote count. The short entry below is an illustration with made-up names.
Riverside Garden Club, regular board meeting, April 14, 7:00 PM, Community Hall
Call to order: President Laura Kim called the meeting to order at 7:02 PM.
Roll call: 6 of 7 directors present; J. Ortiz absent. A quorum was present.
Approval of minutes: The March 10 minutes were approved with one correction to the treasurer's name.
New business: D. Moss moved "to spend up to $800 on new tools for the community plot." Seconded by R. Patel. Motion carried, 5 in favor, 1 opposed.
Adjournment: 8:15 PM. Submitted by Sam Lee, Secretary.
Informal minutes, such as those from a team check-in, keep only the topics, the decisions and the action items. They skip the roll call, the motions and the approval of previous minutes. If your group votes on anything, use the formal format, so each decision can be traced back to a motion.
Minutes include the meeting's name, date, time and place, the people present and absent, the topics discussed, the decisions and votes, the action items with owners and due dates, and the date of the next meeting. The checklist below follows the order most templates use.
The absence of important attendees deserves a line too, because some decisions wait until those people can take part.
A meeting attendance list is a sign-in sheet that each person completes on arrival with a name, a role and a signature. The secretary copies the names into the roll call of the minutes and keeps the sheet with them. For an online meeting, the video platform's participant list does the same job.
| No. | Name | Role | Signature |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Anna Baker | Facilitator | A. Baker |
| 2 | Tom Rivera | Secretary | T. Rivera |
| 3 | Maria Lopez | Marketing | M. Lopez |
To write minutes, build an outline from the agenda before the meeting, note attendance, decisions and votes during it, then clean up the draft, have it approved and send it out. The steps below cover each stage, ending with the template on this page.
Start by preparing a meeting agenda. It outlines the key points of the meeting: the topics to be discussed, the approximate time for each of them, and who will be speaking. Copy the agenda headings into the minutes template, so you only fill in the outcomes during the meeting.
The best way to check who is present is to make a roll call, and then note the names in the minutes. Then write down the main point of each topic, not every word. If there is a debate, note the motion and its result rather than each side's arguments, with a short neutral summary only where your bylaws or the chair ask for one.
Some questions at a meeting might require a voting procedure. If it takes place, the results of voting should be put in the minutes. Write each motion in the words the speaker used, and ask for the wording again if you missed it.
Type up the draft soon after the meeting, while the discussion is fresh. Send it to the chairperson, who reviews the document and can remove details that do not belong in it. The secretary and the facilitator then sign the final version, and the group approves the minutes at its next meeting.
Before you share the minutes, run through this quick check:
Select Create My Document above and answer the questions in order. The builder asks for the same parts a written set of minutes has.
Save your progress, then download or print the finished minutes and share them with the participants.
Minutes differ by length, by how often the group meets and by who attends, so a basic template suits a team check-in while a board meeting with formal votes calls for a detailed form. Pick the type that matches your meeting, then adjust the template to fit.
| Frequency | Typical use |
|---|---|
| Annual | Any type of business that holds a meeting once a year can create these. They usually cover annual accounting, tax records, and other company reports. |
| Quarterly | Created at a meeting held every third month, usually to review the results of the previous quarter and set goals for the next one. |
| Monthly | Formal meeting minutes aimed at solving current problems, discussing strategies, organizational matters, etc. |
| Weekly | They record meetings held week to week and usually cover action items, roadblocks, and questions for the coming weeks. |
Meeting minutes templates might also be used for school board meetings, church meetings, non-profit organization meetings, etc.
Minutes of an organization's opening meeting cover who attended, who was chosen as chair and secretary, whether bylaws or an operating agreement were adopted, and when the group meets next. Use the formal format for them, since later minutes refer back to these decisions.
Minutes give every participant the same account of the goals, decisions and deadlines, so people who missed the meeting can catch up and nobody acts on a different version of a decision. Written minutes help in several practical ways:
Without proper notes, participants may remember the meeting differently and act on different versions of the same decision. Deadlines can then be missed, and even important tasks can be forgotten.
Most weak minutes come from the note-taking, not the template: too much detail, missing owners or a late send. Each mistake below has a simple fix.
Meeting notes are informal and personal. Meeting minutes are the shared, structured document for the meeting, with names, decisions and action items in a fixed order. Many people take notes during the meeting and turn them into minutes afterward.
The secretary usually keeps the minutes. If your group has no secretary, choose one person before the meeting starts, so the facilitator can concentrate on leading the discussion.
Keep them as short as the meeting allows. A basic form works for most regular meetings, while a detailed form suits meetings with many topics or votes. Focus on decisions and next steps rather than a word-for-word account.
Minutes name who made and seconded each motion and who took each action item, but they summarize the discussion without quoting every speaker. Name a speaker only where it matters for a decision.
Send them soon after the meeting, while the discussion is still fresh in everyone's memory. Prompt distribution helps participants confirm their commitments, and it gives absent colleagues a quick way to catch up on the discussion.
Yes, any word processor works if you keep the same headings each time. The template on this page gives you those headings, and you can download and print the finished minutes.
Use the free meeting minutes template on this page. Select Create My Document, answer a few questions, and save, print or download the finished document at any time.
General information, not legal or tax advice.
