How to Take Meeting Minutes for Your Business

What are meeting minutes?

Think of minutes as the official record of what took place during a meeting. They act as a written record of key details and a reference point for attendees to stay on top of assignments and deadlines, ensuring more productive meetings. In a corporation, they can also act as means to inform relevant stakeholders about important decisions made during a board meeting. 

What information should meeting minutes contain?

Minutes should contain a concise and accurate record of essential meeting details. While this list may vary slightly by the needs of your organization, they should typically include the following information:

• The name of the organization
• Date, time, and location
• Participant's names, their role, and whether or not they were in attendance
• Agenda items
• A brief overview of the previous meeting
• Previous meeting minutes approved or revised
• Order(s) of business (i.e. meeting purpose)
• Summary of essential details/topics discussed
• Key decisions made during the meeting
• Action items
• Tasks assigned with timelines and who's responsible for them
• Rationale for every action
• Next week’s agenda items
• Date of the next meeting, if relevant
• Time the meeting ended

Who writes the meeting minutes?

In many cases—such as a board of directors meeting—an administrative assistant or professional secretary will write meeting minutes. That said, anyone can do the job with a bit of preparation. For example, a small business aiming to streamline their meeting process might assign the role to any participant who is particularly detail-oriented and capable of distilling information down to its key points. 

Free meeting minutes template

Many companies have their own meeting templates, but a basic one is a useful starting point if yours doesn't. To keep effective meeting minutes, your template should ideally parallel the agenda/meeting structure.

Heading

(Organization name) meeting

Date and time

Facilitator

Meeting participants

• List all scheduled participants and their roles
• Check off meeting attendees
• Leave the boxes unchecked for those not present 

Agenda items

1. Call to order
2. Roll call
3. Approval of previous meeting minutes
4. Discussion point 1: (Insert topic)
5. Discussion point 2: (Insert topic)
6. Next meeting agenda
7. Adjournment

Approval of minutes

State whether the previous meeting minutes were approved or revised. If revised, note what changes were made.

Summary of Topic 1

Create a concise summary of key points, questions, clarifications, and data. Note any decisions made, including the decision to defer the topic for the next meeting.

Summary of Topic 2

Create a concise summary of key points, questions, clarifications, and data. Note any decisions made, including the decision to defer the topic for the next meeting.

Action items

Document the person responsible for the action items, deadlines, and status. 

Additions to the agenda

Summarize any discussions or decisions added to the agenda during the meeting.

Adjournment 

State the time the meeting adjourned and the date of the next meeting, if discussed. 

How to take effective meeting minutes

Effective note taking comes down to creating a process that works for you and sticking to it (consistency). While the process varies by company, there are a few best practices that can guide you along the way.

Prepare the document early

Keeping meeting minutes can feel incredibly daunting if you don't know how to separate the important details from the flow of conversation. You can save yourself a lot of time and trouble by simply planning ahead.

Work with the meeting facilitator and other team members to gain an understanding of what will be covered during the meeting. Then, design a clear, understandable template within which you can take your meeting notes.

Set a clear agenda

When you have a clear understanding of what you aim to accomplish during the meeting, create a meeting agenda to keep everyone on track. Build the agenda into your minutes or supply one before each meeting for participants to reference as the meeting progresses. This will also make it easier for you to recognize when something being discussed is worth documenting, such a decision, action, or motion.

Follow the template

A good template only works if you use it. Don't try to translate your freeform notes into the template. Instead, use the template as your base and write or type your notes under the relevant items to refine later. If you're worried that an important topic might come up that doesn't fit into the outline, create a designated space for any miscellaneous items or additions to the agenda.

Record minutes immediately

Don't wait till the last minute to convert your notes into minutes. Record them immediately or shortly after the meeting has adjourned to make sure the information is fresh and accurate. Keep the information brief and easy to follow along, but include enough detail that the reader will understand, for example, why a motion was passed or dismissed. Make sure the details you include are objective and factual. When you're ready, share them with your board chair or relevant supervisor to approve for distribution at the next meeting.

Make a filing system

Typically, board members will review the previous meeting minutes at the start of the next meeting for approval or revision. Once approved, choose an easily referenced system to store and file your minutes for future reference, along with any important documents referenced in the meeting.

If you choose to store them online instead of (or in addition to) filing paper copies, Google Drive or Microsoft OneNote are two options that allow you to easily organize documents and share them with your team. If you store minutes online, back them up in an external hard drive as a precaution. Especially if your company is a corporation, minutes are an official record of what took place during your meetings, and they should be treated like any other valuable corporate document.

When should a business start taking meeting minutes?

Many states require corporate minutes for every shareholder or board of directors meeting. Corporate minutes act as an official record of important discussions, decisions, and actions that members made during the meeting. These records create transparency between board members and shareholders and can mitigate disputes by offering formal evidence of what was discussed or decided in a prior meeting.

That said, any business—no matter the size of the company—can benefit from taking meeting minutes to ensure clear communication and consistency. Especially as a company grows, it becomes harder to keep clear lines of communication with larger teams.

Minutes make future meetings more efficient by eliminating repetitive discussions or tasks. They also keep members accountable by providing a clear record of assignments that the facilitator can use to follow up in the next meeting. 

FAQs

Why are meeting minutes important?

When written accurately, meeting minutes are considered legal documents that can be important for a few reasons, including legal compliance. If your company is an S or C corporation, your state may require minutes as an official record of what took place during board meetings.

Minutes are also a valuable tool for any business to streamline its operations and ensure clear communication and expectations between members. Businesses may also use them as evidence to settle disputes. 

Should you take minutes for every meeting?

You should take minutes for every meeting that can impact your company directly. That said, a meeting on a company holiday party may not require the same documentation as a meeting on your marketing budget.

How should you record votes in meeting minutes?

It's very important to record votes in meeting minutes. However, this should generally be an objective documentation of what motion was made and if it was seconded, dismissed, and/or passed without referencing names of the members and how they voted. However, some boards may need to state member's names and how they voted for compliance purposes. If you aren't sure what your company's policy is, ask your board chair or supervisor. 

Should you record sensitive information in meeting minutes?

No, you shouldn't record sensitive information in meeting minutes because they may be considered legal documents and could end up as public information. Opinions, personal details, comments, and private information shouldn't be recorded in meeting minutes. Instead, it should convey a brief and objective summary of proposals presented, key details of discussions, and action items and assignments.