Meeting minutes template, and how to write minutes

Meeting minutes template

This one works for most meetings. Copy it into a doc before the meeting and fill in the agenda items ahead of time, so during the meeting you only add what was decided.

MEETING MINUTES

Group or team:
Meeting:
Date and time:
Location or link:
Chair:
Minutes taken by:
Present:
Absent:

1. Minutes of the last meeting
   Approved / approved with changes:

2. [Agenda item]
   Summary:
   Decision:
   Action: [who] will [what] by [date]

3. [Agenda item]
   Summary:
   Decision:
   Action:

Action items
- [Owner]: [task], due [date]
- [Owner]: [task], due [date]

Next meeting:
Meeting ended at:

Board meeting minutes template

Boards, committees and associations need a few more things on record: whether enough members were there to make decisions (a quorum), each motion in full, and how the vote went. Check your bylaws for anything else yours must include.

BOARD MEETING MINUTES

Organization:
Date, time and place:
Called to order at:
Called to order by:
Directors present:
Directors absent:
Others present:
Quorum present: yes / no

1. Approval of the agenda
2. Approval of the minutes of [date]

3. Reports
   [Officer or committee]: [one line]

4. Motions
   Motion: [exact wording]
   Moved by:
   Seconded by:
   Vote: for __, against __, abstained __
   Result: carried / failed

5. Action items
   - [Owner]: [task], due [date]

Next meeting:
Adjourned at:

Secretary:
Date approved:

Team meeting minutes template

For a weekly team or staff meeting, keep it short. People read these to find out what changed and what they owe.

TEAM MEETING, [date]

Attendees:

Updates
- [Name]: [one line]

Decisions
-

Blockers
- [Problem]: [who is unblocking it]

Action items
- [Owner]: [task], due [date]

Meeting summary template

A summary is what you email everyone after a call, especially people outside your team. It skips the formal parts and leads with the outcome.

Subject: [Meeting name], [date]: summary

Thanks for your time today. Here’s what
we agreed.

Decisions
-

Next steps
- [Owner]: [task], due [date]

Open questions
- [Question]: [who will answer it]

Next meeting: [date, or “none planned”]

How to write meeting minutes

Before the meeting. Get the agenda and copy its items into the template, in order. Agree on who takes the minutes. Chairing a meeting and writing it down at the same time is hard, so it works best as two people.

During the meeting. Write down:

• who attended, and anyone who left early
• each decision, in one sentence
• each action item, with one owner and a due date
• in formal meetings, every motion word for word, who moved and seconded it, and the vote

Don’t try to capture the conversation. “The team discussed the Q3 budget and agreed to cut travel by 10%” is enough. If you missed a decision, ask the chair to restate it before the meeting moves on.

After the meeting. Clean up your notes the same day, while you still remember what they mean. Send the draft to the chair to check, then to everyone who attended. In boards and committees, the minutes become official once the group approves them, usually at the next meeting.

What to leave out of minutes

Minutes record what the group did, not everything that was said. Leave out:

• word-for-word discussion and who said what (motions are the exception)
• your own opinions and comments
• side conversations, jokes and personal remarks
• anything you’d be uncomfortable hearing read aloud at the next meeting

This matters most for boards and other formal groups, whose minutes are part of their official records. Robert’s Rules of Order, which many of them follow, makes the same point: minutes are a record of what was done, not what was said.

Example of meeting minutes

Here’s the general template filled in for a made-up weekly marketing meeting:

MEETING MINUTES

Team: Marketing
Meeting: Weekly marketing meeting
Date and time: October 13, 2026, 10:00 a.m.
Location: Zoom
Chair: Dana
Minutes taken by: Luis
Present: Dana, Luis, Priya, Sam
Absent: Kim

1. Minutes of the last meeting
   Approved.

2. Fall sale emails
   Summary: Open rates fell from 31%
   to 24%.
   Decision: Test shorter subject lines
   on the next two sends.
   Action: Priya will write 3 subject
   lines by October 15.

3. Website contact form
   Summary: Form leads dropped after
   the site update.
   Decision: Check the form before
   changing anything else.
   Action: Sam will test the form and
   report back by October 14.

Action items
- Priya: 3 subject lines, due October 15
- Sam: test the form, due October 14

Next meeting: October 20, 10:00 a.m.
Meeting ended at: 10:35 a.m.

Minutes vs. meeting notes

Minutes are a shared, formal record that the group agrees is accurate. Meeting notes are informal and often personal: whatever you need to remember, in whatever shape helps you. Most team meetings only need good notes with clear action items, and my guide on writing notes people actually act on covers those. Boards, committees, councils and anything with votes or legal duties need minutes.

Let an app draft the minutes

An AI notes app can write the first draft while you run the meeting. Granola (affiliate link) is one: you type a few rough notes while people talk, and afterward it expands them using a transcript of the call. No bot joins the meeting. Its note templates set the sections your notes come out in, so you can make one with the headings above: attendees, decisions and action items. You create templates in the Mac and Windows apps, and you pick one during a call by typing / in your notes.

Templates come with Granola’s free Basic plan, which keeps 30 days of meeting history; the Business plan is $14 a user a month and keeps all of it. Two cautions: ask before you transcribe anyone, as Granola itself recommends, and read the draft before you send it. An AI draft only becomes the minutes once a person has checked it.

A good agenda makes the minutes easy, because each item becomes a heading. My free meeting agenda builder turns a rough plan into an agenda with times and owners.