
Meeting minutes
Keep track of your club or business meetings with the contemporary and accessible minutes template. Track the details of your next formal meeting with this professionally designed meeting minutes Word template. This simple, step-by-step template for minutes is easy to follow, and includes a preformatted style everyone in the meeting can enjoy.

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6 Examples of Meeting Minutes (+Free Templates)
Use these meeting minutes examples to see how to write meeting minutes for your own meetings.

How to build a happier, more productive team through better meeting processes
Taking meeting minutes is a common practice in many organizations. It's how the organization keeps track of what happened during the meeting and how decisions were made.
But what exactly should be written in meeting minutes can be confusing if you don't have an example.
In this article, we'll give you examples of meeting minutes so that you can see how to write meeting minutes for your own organization's meetings.
Meeting Minutes Examples In This Article:
- Meeting Minutes with No Formatting
- Simple Meeting Template
- Board Meeting Template
- Executive Monthly Meeting
- Sprint Planning
- One-On-One Meetings
Quick Tips on Writing Meeting Minutes
Before we jump into the examples of meeting minutes , here are some of the best practices to look out for:
- Keep the meeting minutes short and sweet . A full hour of discussion should result in around half a page or even less, depending on how much information you need to include.
- Include who was present at the meeting as well as their role (if relevant).
- Note decisions that were made . If something is decided upon, always state what decision was made so that future actions can be assigned and held accountable.
- Keep track of votes . If there was a disagreement or debate, make sure to note how the final decision came about (i.e., who voted for which option).
- Reiterate any action items that need to get done at the end of the meeting so people know what they're responsible.
As you can see, meeting minutes are pretty straightforward to write. As long as you get all of the necessary information down in a clear and concise way it should be fine.
Here are some examples of how to write meeting minutes for your own meetings. At the bottom of each meeting minutes sample is a link to download the meeting minutes template for free as a Word Doc, Google Doc, or to use it in Fellow (free meeting management software).
Learn what *not* to include in your meeting minutes
{{start-having-better-meetings="/blog-inserts"}}
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<span class="h-circle">1</span> Meeting Minutes Example: No Agenda or Formatting
For example, unstructured meeting minutes with no formatting might end up something like this:
The meeting started at 11:00 am and was attended by John Smith, Jane Doe, and Robert Brown. The meeting minutes were kept by James Taylor.
After an overview of how the project is going so far and what we hope to accomplish in the next week, we discussed how best to divide up our tasks for this upcoming week. For the first day, we decided to work on task A and B.
We also reached a consensus that we would finish up our discussion about how best to handle issue C at next week's meeting instead of trying to solve it now.
Advantages of no-agenda style of meeting minutes
Taking meeting minutes without any agenda or formatting is not ideal, but it does have advantages over not taking meeting minutes at all. So if that’s the way you’ve done it until now, it’s a good start. You’ve been keeping notes that can serve, somewhat, as a record. And they can serve to jog someone’s memory.
Advantages include:
- At least you’re taking meeting minutes
- You can do it instantly, without any prep
- You have some kind of record, even if it’s not ideal
- You can easily copy, paste, and share the information
- It can work for very small teams, which don’t have a lot of meetings (Say, a tiny local sailing club’s quarterly meetings.)
The good news is it’s easy to take this style of meeting minutes to the next level, to give yourself more power, better reputation, and to help your team accomplish even more.
It's easy to switch styles to more formatted notes
Taking your meeting minutes to the next level is easier than not. In fact, switching to a style of meeting minutes which depends on an agenda and some basic formatting is easier and less stressful than a no-agenda, no-formatting style.
The reason is that a bit of organization makes anything easier, and that includes especially a task such as taking meeting minutes.
Disadvantages of no-agenda style of meeting minutes
Before we look at an easy way to better organize meeting minutes, let’s take a clear look at the disadvantages of taking meeting minutes without any agenda or formatting. Sometimes if a method has seemed to work fine, and to satisfy stakeholders, it’s helpful to look directly at the disadvantages.
Looking at the opportunities you’re missing with a super simple approach to note taking can be highly motivating. You’ll find a lot of low-hanging fruit that can improve your standing and your team’s performance.
Disadvantages include:
- They look unprofessional . A plain text form of meeting minutes is very informal – and not necessarily in a good way, because a basic agenda and simple formatting is so easy these days, with so many free apps available, and so many excellent free templates available.
- They’re hard to read. Formatting, fonts, design and templates exist for a very good business reason. They make information easier to read and absorb. When meeting minutes are left unformatted, they’re harder to read. Everything is one big mass of text, even if it’s broken up into short paragraphs and sentences.
- They might be hard to access. Unformatted meeting minutes without an agenda are usually lacking in other best practices for meeting minutes. For example, easy cloud access. Can the right people access meeting minutes at any time, securely, from any device?
- They might be too easy to access for the wrong people. Again, unformatted meeting minutes often get short shrift in access management, resulting in blunt-instrument access controls. Are they in simple Google Docs set to “Anyone with the Link Can Access”? It happens far too often. And it’s not professional or secure.
- The notes are unfocused. The chain of causation is clear. Meetings without agendas are unfocused. That means the person trying to take notes doesn’t know what to focus on, and the conversation veers into multiple directions anyway. So the notes are going to be unfocused. They’ll reflect the ongoing lack of focus in meetings. And they are a link in the chain – they are part of the cause of that lack of focus.
Which means they are also the cure to the lack of focus. Formatted meeting minutes, based on a professionally formatted agenda template, can introduce a high degree of order into a business meeting, and especially over a series of meetings. You can bring a significant amount of focus into regular meetings just by regularly creating a formatted agenda.
When taking notes without an agenda, you don’t know what to focus on
You or whoever is running the meeting can’t stick to time schedules (because there aren’t any)
It’s easier to format than to keep using unformatted meeting notes
The good news is that it’s so easy to take these first two “best practice” steps:
- Start with an agenda
- Format the notes
But how? Right?
The next section spells out exactly how you can get started. It’ll make your note taking better, your meetings more productive, and your standing rise.
How to take the next step
To take the next step up, you need just one thing.
You need a professionally formatted agenda template. (You can take notes right inside your agenda template.)
Scroll down to see some examples of professionally formatted, free meeting agendas, which you can download and use right now.
Get the exact agenda meeting template you need right now – for free
While you’re moving up from a no-format agenda, you may as well choose an agenda template designed specifically for the kind of meeting you’ll be taking notes for.
It’s easy.
Just scroll down to find the most commonly needed templates.
Not finding one that fits your needs? Try our 80+ collection of professional agenda meeting templates .
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<span class="h-circle">2</span> Meeting Minutes Example: Simple Meeting Template
If you’re in a hurry, or have a minimalistic need, this Simple Meeting Minutes template is for you. It frontlines the Goal of the meeting, segues into the Agenda Items, and closes with a Next Steps section.
This meeting minutes template is perfect for true Simple Meetings because it focuses everyone on the Goal of the meeting, which is what simple meetings are for, after all. In a simple meeting, no one is concerned with Roberts’ Rules of Order, a quorum, recording votes according to accepted parliamentary procedure.
The Simple Meeting participants are there to quickly discuss a specific issue, solve a specific problem, answer a specific question, and reach a specific business goal.
That means this Simple Meeting Template is great for what it’s good for, but could be limited when it comes to other kinds of meetings.
When you see that your needs are better served by a more detailed design, keep scrolling to see other popular examples of meeting minutes, each with a free template – or use the search or filter functions at our directory of Free Meeting Agenda Templates .
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<span class="h-circle">3</span> Meeting Minutes Example: Board Meeting Template
This board meeting template includes all the basic components of a board meeting, so that the person or persons taking notes can have a clear focus.
It starts with a Call to Order, includes Attendance of voting members and others, Approval of the previous meeting minutes, Reports, Motions, Announcements, and Adjournment.
Prepare to take minutes for a board meeting
Board meetings are among the highest level of meetings at which you could be responsible for taking notes. It’s important to do your homework in order to prepare.
- Talk with someone who has done it well before at your company, or with your board chair. Ensure you understand what the expectations are of the meeting minutes taker, and how it’s been done before.
- Review Robert’s Rules of Order , where you’ll learn about having a quorum, making motions, conducting and recording voting, and more under the most respected methodology for running meetings on parliamentary procedure.
- Make sure you’re aware of your company’s specific policies regarding the board meeting agenda and minutes. your board’s specific policies.
- If it’s your first time to take minutes for a board meeting, it’s a good idea to practice in private with example board meetings you can find on YouTube, or previous board meetings from your company, if they’re available to you on audio or video in a company repository.
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<span class="h-circle">4</span> Meeting Minutes Example: Executive Monthly Meeting
Because weekly (or even monthly) Executive Team Meetings relentlessly come around on the calendar, taking meeting minutes for them can quickly overwhelm a person who doesn’t yet have a good system in place..
A good system for an Executive Weekly Meeting includes built-in ways of:
- Collaborating on the agenda items
- Sharing the agenda easily
- Taking notes
- Handing off responsibility for taking notes on the fly
- Secure, easy ways of sharing the meeting minutes afterward
- Secure, easy ways of storing and searching the entire series of meeting minutes
Fellow offers an end-to-end easy system for managing all these functions.
But any such system starts with an agenda template professionally designed for an Executive Weekly Meeting. Check out the free, instantly-available template below. It doubles as the template for taking meeting minutes.
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<span class="h-circle">5</span> Meeting Minutes Example: Sprint Planning
Sprints that reach goals require effective sprint planning, which requires effective sprint meetings. Done well, a sprint planning meeting not only kicks off a new sprint, but also provides:
- Clear next steps
- Clear criteria by which success is judged
A Sprint Planning Meeting Agenda will help to avoid unanticipated obstacles and make sure everyone knows who’s accountable for what and who is authorized to make decisions on any given issue that may arise.
Sprint Goal
The professional agenda / meeting minutes example for a sprint planning meeting below starts with the Goal , so that everyone knows what the purpose of the meeting is. Collaborate with other stakeholders to determine the Goal.
Sprint Backlog
Then refine your Backlog as you create the agenda. The Backlog is a complete list of what the product requires and in what chronological order. Presenting the Backlog is part of mapping the progress in the project so far.
Epics to be Delivered
This template has you moving naturally then from where the project is to what Epic Deliverables are next.
Scope of Work
From there the meeting will move to refining the Scope of the Work , to make sure everyone is on the same page about what “done” means in this sprint.
Key Risks and Concerns
The Key Risks and Concerns section anticipates possible roadblocks that may arise, and how to deal with them, and who might help deal with them.
Notes and Takeaways and Actions
The Notes and Takeaways section, and the Actions section, confirm what has been decided, and who is responsible for owning any given part of the process.
Followup specifies exactly how task owners will be held accountable, and how stakeholders can help and be kept up to speed.
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<span class="h-circle">6</span> Meeting Minutes Example: One-On-One Meetings
One-on-One Meetings can take many forms, from General One-on-Ones, to a Monthly Coaching Call, to Mentoring Meetings, One-on-One Manager Weekly Meetings, and many more.
(To see a full slate of professional One-on-One Meeting templates, select the the “One-on-One” filter at Hugo’s repository of 80+ Free, Professional Meeting Templates .)
But the one thing that One-on-One meetings require, and is often overlooked, is an agenda. The need for a One-on-One Meeting Agenda can be overlooked because a one-on-one meeting may seem simple, because it’s just between two people.
Why One-on-One Meetings Need Agendas and Meeting Minutes, Too
But the reality is, a meeting between two people, or among 2,000 people in an all-hands-on-deck meeting, requires direction.
A One-on-One meeting requires an agenda. And it requires meeting minutes, so that each participant can know the focus of the meeting, what was decided, and directions going forward.
The worst thing about meetings – any meetings, even one-on-one meetings – is their poor management. Poor management of a meeting wastes people’s time and saps their energy. And people naturally dislike that.
On the other hand, well-managed meetings multiply an individual’s accomplishments as part of a team, and thus are the opposite of wasting time. Individuals naturally thrive based on such meetings.
One-on-One meetings are no exception. When you attend a One-on-One Meeting, you have the more opportunity than in any other meeting to affect the outcome. It can be goal-oriented, directed, documented, and energizing.
All you need is the right, professionally designed template.
For General One-on-One Meetings, this agenda is useful. (For several more specific kinds of One-on-One meeting agenda templates, click the filter “One-on-One” at our repository of 80+ and growing meeting templates .)
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Get 80+ Meeting Minutes Templates (Free to Download)
These examples of meeting minutes all come from our free agenda template library—only they've been filled in with more information.
In fact, all of the meeting agenda templates in our library can be used for meeting minutes. After all, meeting minutes are essentially the agenda of a meeting, just filled in with summaries of what happened in that part of the meeting.
Find these templates and many more in our large gallery of templates, including executive meetings, board meetings, sales meetings, customer calls, team meetings, and staff meetings.
Get free meeting minutes templates
{{go-further-with-hugo="/blog-inserts"}}
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Meeting Minutes Templates and Examples

Whether for business, club, or sports events, meeting minutes can be a key part of keeping the entire team up-to-date on what happened. And it doesn't have to be an arduous task.
Below are some example templates as well as tips and ideas to help you get started with writing and preparing effective meeting minutes.
What are meeting minutes for?
Meeting minutes are the notes that capture what happened at a meeting! Different than a meeting agenda , it records the decisions made and actions requested by the group. Despite the team, they are not a minute-by-minute record but include the key details that the team will want to know. It's important in meeting minutes to capture information such as:
- decisions made
- action items and who is responsible
Minutes are the record of who was there and what happened. They are an important source of information for people who were unable to attend or looking back to reflect on what happened. They're also an incredibly effective tool to notify or remind people of tasks assigned to them or timelines to keep everyone on track.
What should go into meeting minutes?
Here are some of the details that you should into the meeting minutes.
- Date and time of meeting
- Names of the participants
- Agenda items and topics discussed
- Action items
Related Content: Writing Effective Meeting Agendas with Examples and 5 Meeting Agenda Templates
Example of meeting minutes
Below is an example from an informal meeting which captures only the most relevant facts.
Sign up for a free Notejoy account so you can start taking notes with your entire team.
Informal team meeting minutes template
Date: Today's date
- List of attendees
- Item 1 including key discussions, decisions made, next steps
- List goes here in format: action item, responsible person, date
- Example: Brian to follow up to this group with a list of target companies by end of week
Below is an example from a more formal board meeting.
Formal board meeting minutes template
DATE: Date of the meeting
PRESENT: First and last names of all those present at the meeting
ABSENT: First and last names of Committee members who are unable to attend the meeting.
1. CALL TO ORDER/OPENING REMARKS
- The time that the meeting was called to order and by whom.
- Any opening remarks summarized here.
2. APPROVAL OF THE MINUTES FROM (DATE)
- You need a motion to approve the prior meeting's minutes.
- Motion: To approve the minutes of (DATE) as circulated (or AMENDED) Motion By: Name of person (FIRST & LAST) who made the motion
- Seconded By: Name of the person (FIRST & LAST)) who seconded the motion Carried or Defeated
3. ADDITIONS TO THE AGENDA
- If there are additions to the agenda or requests for the next meeting's agenda, these would be bulleted here.
4. APPROVAL OF THE AGENDA
- Motion: to approve the agenda as circulated (or AMENDED)
- Motion By: name of person (FIRST & LAST) who made the motion
- Seconded By: name of person (FIRST & LAST) who made the motion Carried or Defeated
5. BUSINESS FROM THE PREVIOUS MEETING
- Any items from the previous meeting that need to be discussed further
6. ITEM # 1 TO BE DISCUSSED
- Put a summary of the discussion around the topic
- If any motions were made, put the information here
- If further information is needed, put follow-ups, names, and a target date here
7. ITEM # 2 TO BE DISCUSSED
- Any other items
8. ADDITIONS TO THE AGENDA
- Any added agenda Item, including a summary of the discussions around this item
- If any motions were made, put information here
- Record the time the meeting was adjourned
- The next meeting date should be decided at the end of the meeting before everyone leaves. It's a handy reminder to include it at the bottom of the minutes template so it isn't missed.
Notejoy is a more effective way to manage your meetings
Running effective and productive meetings is more than just establishing a great template - it’s about managing the communication of information around the meeting. Is everyone on the same page about what the meeting’s topics and goals are? Have decisions been shared with everyone who needs to know? If you missed the meeting, how can you catch up on the details? Ensuring that the right people have access to information both in the meeting room and after is vital to operating a successful organization.
Notejoy is an effective solution for teams that want to manage their meeting agendas and notes to get and stay on the same page. It fundamentally changes the way that work is done.

Managing meetings in Notejoy is different for three reasons:
Real-Time Collaboration - As a cloud-based solution, Notejoy allows you to share your meeting agenda in advance with internal and external collaborators. These collaborators can view, discuss, and comment on meeting agendas as well as view the latest version.
Always in Sync - Rather than managing different versions of agendas or multiple threads of conversation, Notejoy allows the entire team to always see agendas including changes and discussions at the same time.
Improved Search and Visibility - With meeting notes and discussion comments documented directly in the agenda, teams can keep details in context and maintain one system of record for everything that happened. Manage who has access to what information, and enable team members old and new to search across past and current meeting content.
Related Resources
- How to Take Meeting Minutes
- How to Improve Meeting Notes with Notejoy Templates
- Effective Meeting Agendas with Examples
- 5 Meeting Agenda Templates
- Three Meeting Minutes Samples
- Using Notejoy for Stand Up Meetings
- Notes for Stand Up Meetings
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- How to Write Meeting M...
How to Write Meeting Minutes: 4 Examples (+ Best Practices)

- 9 minute read
Meeting minutes are key for accountability and productivity. Take a look at these samples and tips on how to write effective meeting minutes

There’s so much information available about how to write effective meeting minutes that it can be confusing. Because of this, writing meeting notes can seem like a bit of a burden. It’s a shame, because the opposite is true. Meeting minutes are a powerful resource for teams and are an essential means to share and disseminate information throughout your organization.
Fellow has created the best meeting minutes examples so that you can understand once and for all what meeting minutes are, what their purpose is, and how to write them..
We’ve also included a list of 7 essential things to include when writing minutes, so that no detail gets left behind. Meeting minutes aren’t meant to be difficult so let’s take a look at how to get them right.
What are meeting minutes?
- Why are they called “meeting minutes”
- What is the purpose of meeting minutes?
Why are meeting minutes important?
Who is responsible for taking meeting minutes, how to write meeting minutes.
- Free meeting minutes templates and examples
Meeting minutes are a written record of the conversation and decisions that are made over the course of a meeting. These are applicable to any kind of group within a company, including boards of directors, leadership teams and investors.
At Fellow, we recommend writing meeting notes for any meeting that requires an official record. This written record can then be used to either inform team members who weren’t able to attend what happened or to keep track of decisions and action items that can be revisited. Minutes from previous meetings can therefore be used in order to make future organizational decisions.
Some organizations that are usually required to record meeting minutes include non-profits, government entities, schools, public companies, and trade unions.
Learn how Fellow can help you manage meeting minutes
Why are they called “meeting minutes”?
One interesting fact about meeting minutes is that the term “minutes” has nothing to do with time. In fact, it comes from the Latin term “minutia” (which means trifles or details). According to some sources , the term “meeting minutes” first appeared in the 18th century, directly from the Latin “minuta scriptura,” meaning “small notes.”
In other words, meeting minutes are the details (or short summary) of what happened during a meeting.
What is the purpose of meeting minutes?
Meeting minutes provide a historical record of the company’s discussions, decisions, and long-term planning. Participants have the ability to use the meeting minutes as a record for future reference, to understand what kinds of progression has taken place.
On the other hand, minutes can be referenced by individuals who didn’t attend the meeting, but need to be informed about the decisions and next steps.
Meeting minutes serve as proof of why and how a company came to certain decisions. This can be helpful in answering any questions that arise in reference to decisions that have been made or the discussions that were held.
In an article about how to take better minutes, Business Training Works highlights the importance of meeting minutes:
- They are a record of a group’s decisions and actions
- They are a reminder of who was given assignments
- They are evidence of deadlines
- They are a benefit for people who are absent when decisions are made
Apart from acting as an official record of the discussions and decisions, minutes of meetings can also provide legal protection for your organization. Many times, due diligence is captured in companies’ minutes. This can then be officiated and documented to confirm the ethical, fair practices of the organization.
At certain organizations (such as government entities and trade unions), the secretary is responsible for recording meeting minutes.
If your company or team doesn’t have a specific role for this, we suggest rotating the role of “note taker” amongst meeting participants. Alternatively, you can use a collaborative meeting minutes tool like Fellow to ensure that every meeting attendee contributes to the meeting notes. In Fellow, meeting minutes are linked to calendar events, making it easy to find the minutes from previous meetings, and scroll back in time to review earlier conversations.
The approach to write meeting minutes varies across different teams and organizations. However, our meeting experts compiled 7 best practices that apply to all sorts of teams and scenarios.
Some of these best practices include documenting key decisions and the responsible individuals for action items. Keep reading to assess whether you’re missing any of these 7 key practices when writing the minutes of a meeting!
7 things that should be included when writing meeting minutes
1 date and time of the meeting.
Before you actually start writing your meeting minutes, note the date and time of the meeting. Seems like a no-brainer, but it’s worth a mention seeing as it’s so important to be able to go back to previous meetings and understand when they happened, what’s been accomplished, and what’s still outstanding.
2 Names of the participants
The next step is to document the names of all of the participants and any other people who weren’t able to attend. Usually, at the beginning of the meeting, there’s some time dedicated to the acceptance or amendment to previous meeting minutes so you can take a look at who attended last time to have a draft version of an attendee list. Better yet, use the calendar invite to check names as participants join or enter the room.
If you’re using a meeting management tool like Fellow, the date and meeting participants will be recorded in the agenda automatically.
3 Purpose of the meeting
It’s pretty important that the “why” behind this meeting is documented and made obvious. In this part of the meeting minutes, try to be detailed in explaining why this meeting was called and what it’s trying to achieve. This is going to especially be useful for any individuals who were unable to attend the meeting and for anyone who is using the outcomes of this meeting to fuel decisions.
4 Agenda items and topics discussed
Use your meeting agenda as a general outline for your meeting notes and use each agenda item as a section to record notes on, including any outcomes or major decisions that have been made.
It’s a good idea to send out the meeting agenda in advance so that everyone can make suggestions and contribute to it. This also means that no one’s walking into the room blind to what’s going to be discussed.
Using a meeting minutes template can save you a lot of time and energy. If you use the same template on a recurring basis this can also foster some familiarity. In a recent Harvard Business Review article by Steven G. Rogelberg, he highlights why meeting agendas matter so much:
“What matters is not the agenda itself but the relevance and importance of what’s on it, and how the leader facilitates discussion of the agenda items.”
Having a meeting agenda isn’t worth your time unless you’re going to discuss the most relevant and pertinent topics in an engaging manner. Definitely some food for thought.

Great meeting minutes start with a collaborative agenda
Meetings being booked without a purpose or going completely off-topic? Fellow’s collaborative approach transforms meetings into productive work sessions you’ll want to attend.

5 Key decisions and action items
Productive meetings result in assigning action items to different participants. Record any decisions or action items as soon as they happen so that you can transcribe them with accuracy.
Capturing everything would be impossible. Instead, listen for actions that need to be made in relation to major decisions, recommendations, challenges or solutions that have been identified.
To ensure that these important takeaways aren’t lost, make sure they stand out in the meeting minutes. This might mean including a checkbox, bolding, highlighting etc.
Recording the action items of a meeting is going to enable you as a group to hold each other accountable for your responsibilities and support one another in getting tasks done that bring you closer to achieving your larger, organizational goals.
6 Next meeting date and place
If you’re taking formal meeting minutes, it’s important to include when the next meeting is, with regard to this project or topic of discussion. This gives meeting attendees a general timeline of how long they have to complete the responsibilities that have been assigned.
Understanding when you’re meeting next is going to help you manage your time appropriately and prioritize all of your tasks. It’s as important to know the place of your meeting, whether it be online or in person.
7 Documents to be included in the report
The last thing to include are supplementary documents that you should send out with your minutes in the meeting report . Think about if any documents were used or referenced in the meeting which may be useful to include for your team members. This could include an action or issues log, KPIs, updates or changes to the project. An article published by G2 articulates the importance of sending your meeting minutes out ASAP:
“Once the meeting is over, it’s time to tidy up your notes and distribute them to your team. The best time to do this is directly after the meeting while everything is fresh in your mind. This decreases the chance of mistakes and allows you to reach out to meeting participants if you have questions.”
Even though you’re sending this report out as quickly as possible, make sure that you write the minutes well, focusing on quality, seeing as this serves as a record which will be referred to in the future.
Now, without further ado, here are three meeting minute templates to ensure your meetings are always effective:
Free Meeting Minutes Templates
1 formal board meeting minutes example.
Formal meeting minutes are used to document big or official decisions that often require approval. These meeting notes use formal language and are structured with the purpose of being shared with all of the meeting participants afterwards.
Formal minutes are commonly used by nonprofits, government, schools, and public companies. Most trade unions, schools, city and county governments model their meeting minutes based on Robert’s Rules of Order .
If you’re writing notes for a formal meeting, it’s important to document as much information as possible, and keep the meeting format consistent from meeting to meeting.
It’s smart to use a meeting template for more formal conversations to give them the structure that you’re looking for. Organization of notes is key, since you’ll be sharing the notes with everyone afterwards.
Call to order
Facilitated by the ‘Chair of the Board’
- [Meeting facilitator] called to order the regular meeting of [Organization] at [time] on [date] in [location].
Secretary conducted a roll call. The following persons were present:
Approval of minutes
Before any official business can be conducted, the board must approve the minutes from the last meeting.
- [Secretary] read the minutes from the last meeting. The minutes were approved.
Open issues
Items that the board has previously discussed that are ready for formal approval.

New business
These items may be voted on, amended, tabled, moved to committee for consideration or postponed.
Adjournment
After all the open issues and new business has been discussed and documented, the meeting facilitator will adjourn the board meeting.
- [Meeting facilitator] adjourned at the meeting at [time meeting ended].
Submission and approval of minutes
Minute taker must submit the minutes for approval by the Board Chair or meeting facilitator.
- Minutes submitted by: [Name]
- Minutes approved by: [Name]
2 Informal Meeting Minutes Example
Informal meeting minutes serve as a quick reference to important topics that have been covered in your meeting such as goals, obstacles, deadlines or ideas.
If your organization doesn’t require you to use a specific meeting minutes format , you can use and customize a simpler template. Contrary to a formal template, no one needs to have approved the minutes for this type of meeting. They serve to only document the key points and next steps.
Here’s an informal meeting minutes template you can use to record decisions at your team meetings :
A meeting of [organization] was held at [location] on [date].
- Voting members in attendance included:
- Guests in attendance included:
- Members not in attendance included:
- A motion to approve the minutes of the previous [date] meeting was made by [name] and seconded by [name].
- [Report name] was presented by [name of presenter].
Main motions
- Motion: Moved by [name] and seconded that [state the motion here]. The motion [carried or failed] with [number] in favour and [number] against.
- [Name of mover] moved that the meeting be adjourned, and this was agreed upon at [time of adjournment].
- Date of approval:
3 Board Meeting Minutes Template
Use this template to create an official record of the discussions and decisions made by the board of directors.
This template outlines the meeting details such as name of meeting, date, and time. It also includes an outline of the attendees, key minutes or decisions from the last board meeting, reports from officers, committees, or different board directors. Lastly, a space to note any solutions or next steps discussed, with specific assignees and an approximate timeframe for completion
Meeting details
Note the meeting type, date, and time.
- Name of meeting:
Note the attendees in the meeting.
- Chairperson:
- Presiding officers:
- Absent board directors:
- Other guests or staff members present:
Old business
Key meeting minutes and decisions from the last board meeting.
- Approval of the previous meeting’s minutes
- Unresolved action items from previous board meetings
Include reports from officers, committees, or different board directors.
- Agenda item 1
- Agenda item 2
- Agenda item 3
Action steps
Note any solutions or next steps discussed, with specific assignees and an approximate timeframe for completion.
End the board meeting by documenting the following information:
- Date and time of the next board meeting
- The time when the meeting adjourns
- Secretary approval:
- President/Chairperson approval:
4 David Sacks’ SaaS Board Meeting Template
This template was curated by David Sacks (former COO at PayPal and founder of Yammer). If you’re a founder or executive running board meetings for your SaaS company, we recommend using it:
CEO Update [30 minutes]
Wins, challenges, learnings, and KPIs.
Sales Update [30 minutes]
ARR, deals, closed, objections, and forecast
Departmental Updates [20 minutes]
Product roadmap and updates from other departments.
Financials [10-20 minutes]
Gross margin, financial plans, and operational expenditure.
Team [10-20 minutes]
What areas have the greatest need for new hires?
Administrative Matters [5-10 minutes]
Housekeeping and administrative matters
Action items
What came out of this meeting?
Writing meeting minutes doesn’t need to be stressful. In fact, the whole purpose of them is to make your life less stressful by having the ability to go back and reference what was discussed and what the key outcomes were. In this article, Fellow’s meeting experts outlined what meeting minutes are and why they’re so important. We provided formal and informal meeting minutes templates so that you can test them out and see if they work for you. Lastly, we listed 7 must-have things to include when writing minutes:
- Date and time of meeting
- Names of the participants
- Purpose of the meeting
- Agenda items and topics to be discussed
- Action items
- Next meeting date and place
- Documents to be included in the meeting report
Refer back to this guide (or to our list of what NOT to include in meeting minutes ) whenever you need some guidance on how to write effective meeting minutes. Don’t forget to try out one of our meeting templates so that you can maintain consistency and never skip over any necessary detail. Until next time!
Tips for high-performing leaders
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What to Include In Your Meeting Minutes [+ 10 Templates]
![presentation meeting minutes template What to Include In Your Meeting Minutes [+ 10 Templates]](https://visme.co/blog/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/What-to-Include-In-Your-Meeting-Minutes-Header.jpg)
Written by: Chloe West

Whether you’re having an in-person or virtual meeting , it’s important to put policies in place that ensure it’s an effective and productive gathering. And one great way to do that is to keep up with meeting minutes.
Meeting minutes are notes taken throughout a meeting so that participants can easily refer back to them for a refresher on what was discussed and what needs to be done next. However, it can be difficult to make the most out of your notes without an impactful meeting minutes template.
Throughout this article, we’ll talk more about the importance of meeting minutes and what you should include . We'll also share 10 fully customizable templates and meeting minutes examples you can use during your next meeting.
Let’s dig in.
Here’s a short selection of 8 easy-to-edit meeting minutes templates you can edit, share and download with Visme. View more templates below:

Table of Contents
What are meeting minutes and why use them, what to include in your meeting minutes, 10 meeting minutes templates for your next meeting.
- Meeting minutes are notes taken throughout a meeting to keep track of what was discussed.
- A meeting minute document should include; the time and date, participants, objectives, agenda, notes and action items.
- To make your meeting minutes impactful, use these actionable tips: use a branded template, assign the meeting minutes to the best note-taking person in the team and review action items from previous meetings.
- Take advantage of Visme's meeting minutes template to make your meeting productive.
Meeting minutes are notes of discussions, decisions and action items within a meeting.
Now the big question is: why are meeting minutes important?
They help those who were not in the meeting to know what was discussed and are also useful for meeting participants to look back on so they know their next steps.
Meeting minutes get their name not from the measure of time but from the term "minute," (“my-newt”), which means small. This possibly stems from the Latin term “minuta scriptura,” which means “small notes.”
Although they are quite minute, meeting minutes still have great importance and should be utilized throughout each of your most important meetings. A few benefits include the following:
- Having a clear-cut agenda before you even start the meeting.
- Establishing a record of what was discussed and who is the stakeholder for various tasks.
- Getting notes and discussion points for those who were not present.
- Understanding the next steps so your team can stay on track.
- Ensuring you hold a productive meeting every time and discovering the ineffective meetings you can remove from your calendar.
According to research by Zippia , Organizations spend roughly 15% of their time on meetings, with surveys showing that 71% of those meetings are considered unproductive. Use effective meeting minutes to help your team stay productive and focused on the agenda in subsequent meetings,
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Now how can you make sure you get these benefits out of your meeting minutes? There’s no best format for meeting minutes, but there are best practices.
Here are six main line items you’ll want to include to get the most out of your meetings—and your meeting minutes.
Meeting Date and Time
First, let’s start with the basics. When and where is the meeting? Create a section towards the top that includes the date and time of the meeting. You may also want to include the location, especially if this is a live document and you’re having a virtual meeting or presentation . Participants can then click on the meeting minutes document to access the meeting.
Meeting Participants
Next, add a table with all meeting participants. List them in order of importance or talking time, starting with the team leader and going down the list from there.
For example, you might put your department head at the top, then go in order from who has the most agenda items to discuss to who has the least. This helps you keep the meeting organized and have enough time to review each person’s agenda items.
Meeting Objective(s)
What is the meeting for? Not only is this good to include in your meeting minutes so you can find meetings of a similar purpose with an easy search, but it’s also good to have in general. After all, a meeting with no objective should not be held as it’s a waste of each person’s time.
Your objective might be something like:
- To assign tasks and kick off our next project
- To brainstorm ideas for our next marketing campaign
- To improve processes within a certain team or department
- To plan an upcoming event or team building activity
Meeting Agenda
Create a table or itemized list of all meeting agenda items. You may want to reach out to attendees to see if anyone has specific items they plan to bring to the meeting to discuss. Write down the name of the person who plans to talk about each agenda item on your document.
Meeting Notes
This is going to be the meat of your meeting minutes. The above items keep you organized and ensure you have a productive meeting, but you need a large section (or additional page) to house all meeting notes.
When taking minutes for a meeting, you may want to place notes under each specific agenda item. Or you may want to create a new page for this; it’s entirely up to you.
However, you need to dedicate one team member to take notes throughout the meeting to input into this section. It’s a good idea to choose one of the fastest typers on your team or consider having a secretary or assistant help out here.
Notes may at first be jumbled and filled with typos, so make sure to revisit this section at the end of the meeting to clean it up. That way, the notes can easily be referenced in the future by meeting attendees and those who were not present.
When creating meeting minutes, use Visme shortcuts to add things quickly; after all, you don’t have time to spare. Click on the slash icon on your keyboard and find what you need, faster. Easily update information throughout your meeting minutes from a single source with Visme Dynamic Fields .
Watch this video to learn more about Visme keyboard shortcuts and hotkeys.
Action Items
At the bottom of your meeting minutes document, include a small section for action items. This is where you’ll put actionable tasks that meeting participants (even some who may not have been in the meeting) need to complete. Include the deadline as well.
This is how you know you’re having a productive meeting—you’re ending it with the next steps for the team to complete before the next meeting or before the launch of your project.
Once you’ve filled this out, send the meeting minutes document to everyone involved or with action items to complete. This will help keep the team on track and everyone knows what they need to do without their manager keeping tabs.
Share the final meeting minutes with your team so you’re all on the same page. Use the Visme analytics tool in your dashboard to review who has seen the document.
Beyond using Visme templates for meeting minutes, you can make quick infographics to show quick stats like Paul, a sustainable travel services coordinator. Here's what he had to say:
“Creating and sharing visually appealing content is quick and easy with Visme. I often find myself jumping into Visme during a meeting and finding an infographic or two to share stats and data. The response I receive about the data and presentation stylings are always positive, and people want to learn more about Visme - which I'm glad to do.”
5 Tips for Taking Meeting Minutes
Are you new to meeting minutes? Don’t worry; we’ve compiled a selection of actionable tips for taking meeting minutes efficiently every time.
1. Use a Template
Nothing saves more time than an easy meeting minutes template.
Learning how to take minutes for a meeting template will help you in more ways than you can imagine. Use it every time you’re in charge of taking meeting minutes at in-person or virtual meetings.
Template options include; pre-filled documents you can download, professionally designed templates you can customize at will or a template specially designed for your brand.
2. Review Actions
Always start a new meeting minute document with a review of the actions from the previous meeting. Keep track of what still needs doing and who’s in charge.
Have this section in your template every time, so you don’t skip or forget about it. The best location is close to the top so that the reader can get the lay of the land before reading the rest of the minutes.
3. Use Tables
In our collection of templates for meeting minutes, you’ll find a few with tables as part of the layout. You can use tables for the entirety of your note-taking or only for specific sections.
Separating the content into different visual styles helps readers skim the final document and retain attention. Use your brand colors in the tables to complete the visual composition of your meeting minutes.
4. Collaborate
Keep track of meeting minutes and collaborate with your team members using the Visme whiteboard feature. Assign sections for attendees to fill in while the meeting is happening. Go a step further and use one of our whiteboard meeting summary templates . Collect the information together, and don’t miss a single thing.

5. Capture Visuals
Take screenshots or photograph important information shared during the meeting. For example, any information shared on a board or analysis with post-its on the wall.
Virtual meetings with presentations might include critical information like roadmaps and data visualizations. If they are highly important for productivity, include them in the minutes.
Ready to start running impactful, effective and productive meetings? You need a meeting minutes template . We’ve got 10 professionally created templates for various types of meetings.
The best meeting minutes template is the one that helps you take notes faster and doesn't hinder productivity. Choose the template that works best for you, match it to your brand colors and start taking notes.
1. Executive Committee Meeting Minutes Template

This meeting minutes template is a more corporate design, perfect for executive meetings with the C-suite in your organization. Input all attendees, write out your agenda topics, then take brief notes on decisions made or action items for the next meeting.
2. Minimalist Meeting Minutes Template

With an easy meeting minutes template like this, you can easily assign various agenda items to the meeting participants. This helps to keep the meeting organized and ensures that everyone has a speaking opportunity.
3. Board Meeting Minutes Template

This straightforward template will allow you to create a professional look for your board meeting minutes agenda. This specific template showcases what an end-of-year meeting might look like, but you can use it for quarterly updates, major board changes and more.
4. Team Meeting Minutes Template

This creative team meeting minutes template gives you a bit more flexibility in your design. Meeting minutes don’t always have to be corporate, straightforward designs. Have some fun with the look and feel of your team meetings so they're visually appealing to look back on.
5. Creative Agency Meeting Minutes Template

With Visme, you get access to a number of fun design elements to take your visual content to the next level. With a template like this, you can take advantage of our icons to visualize things like date, participants, location and more within your meeting minutes.
6. Simple Meeting Minutes Template

Incorporate tables into your meeting minutes to easily organize participants and agenda items. With Visme, you can create tables of any size within seconds, making it easy to adjust and create new and existing tables for your meeting minutes.
7. Marketing Team Meeting Minutes Template

Incorporating contact information into your meeting minutes is a great way to make sure that all meeting participants are able to reach each other if there are any additional questions or clarification needed on action items. You can easily add those as additional columns in your table.
8. Corporate Meeting Minutes Template

Get creative with your meeting minutes design with this simple corporate minutes template. Incorporating additional design details, especially if it matches your branding patterns, is a great way to make your meeting minutes more visually appealing.
9. Project Kick-Off Meeting Minutes Template

Don’t put your “meeting minutes” title right at the top—take a page out of this simple minutes template’s book and use a big, bold font to place your heading vertically along the side of your page. This is a creative way to help your meeting minutes stand out.
10. Annual Meeting Minutes Template

Use color strategically to make certain pieces of your meeting minutes pop. In the above template, we see color backgrounds added to certain table cells to bring attention to those as headers.
Use a Meeting Minutes Template Today
In this guide, we discussed what to include in meeting minutes and shared ten ready-to-use minutes for meetings templates.
Now you can hold more productive and efficient meetings by utilizing meeting minutes templates to take notes, bring attention to action items, and ensure all participants have a voice within the meeting. Use Visme’s online whiteboard or document creator to get started today.
Not sure if Visme is the right tool for your team? Take a look at all of the new tool and features we added for you.
Write effective meeting minutes using Visme

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About the Author
Chloe West is the content marketing manager at Visme. Her experience in digital marketing includes everything from social media, blogging, email marketing to graphic design, strategy creation and implementation, and more. During her spare time, she enjoys exploring her home city of Charleston with her son.

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