Meeting minutes template you can copy
One general template and three shorter variants.
Minutes exist so that people who weren't in the room, and people who were and forgot, know what was decided. Everything else in them is optional. Here is a template that keeps that first, and three variants for the meetings that need something shorter.
The general meeting minutes template
Meeting: [name] Date and time: [date, start-end] Attendees: [names] Apologies: [names] Purpose: [one line, why this meeting happened] Decisions 1. [Decision], decided by [name] 2. [Decision], decided by [name] Action items | Action | Owner | Due | | [what] | [who] | [when] | Open questions - [Question], to be answered by [name or next meeting] Discussion notes [Short paragraphs, in the order topics came up. Detail only where it explains a decision.] Next meeting: [date, or "not scheduled"]
How to use it
- Fill the top block before the meeting: name, date, purpose, expected attendees.
- During the meeting, write only decisions and actions. Discussion notes come afterwards.
- Put a name against every action. An action without an owner isn't an action.
- Send it the same day. Minutes that arrive on Friday for a Monday meeting change nothing.
Three shorter variants
Date: [date] · Present: [names] Blockers: [what's stuck, and who's unblocking it] Decisions: [only if any were made] Next: [what changes before tomorrow]
Client: [name] · Date: [date] · Attendees: [both sides] What they asked for: [in their words] What we committed to: [scope, dates] Open points: [pricing, access, approvals] Next step: [who does what, by when]
Meeting: [name] · Date: [date] · Chair: [name] · Quorum: [yes/no] Attendees and apologies: [names] Resolutions: [formal wording, proposer, seconder, outcome] Matters arising: [from previous minutes] Actions: [action, owner, due] Date of next meeting: [date]
What to leave out
Who said what, unless the meeting was formal or the attribution matters. Minutes record the group's conclusion, not the debate.
The transcript. Link it if you have one, but don't paste it in. Nobody reads minutes that are forty pages long.
Editorialising. "A long discussion followed" tells the reader nothing. Either the discussion produced a decision or it didn't.
Anything you'd regret in a dispute. Minutes are a record. In some organisations they're a legal one.
Filling the template automatically
The tedious part of minutes isn't the structure, it's writing them while also taking part in the meeting. Send voxnoto to the call and it returns the decisions, owners and open questions, which drop into the template above almost as they are.
You still read it over before sending, the summary is a first draft, and the person who chaired the meeting is the one who knows what actually mattered.
Questions and answers
What should meeting minutes include?
Decisions, action items with owners and dates, open questions, and enough context to explain them.
How are minutes different from a transcript?
A transcript is every word. Minutes are the decisions, owners and open questions, in a form people actually read.
Who writes the minutes?
Traditionally a secretary or the chair. With a recording, whoever chaired can edit an automatic summary instead.
How long should minutes be?
One page for most meetings. Board minutes may run longer because resolutions are recorded formally.
Do minutes need to be approved?
In formal and board settings, yes, usually at the start of the next meeting.
Can I get minutes written automatically?
Yes. Record the meeting and edit the summary into this template.
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