Minutes of Writing | minutes writing

What are meeting minutes?

Meeting minutes, or mom (for minutes of meeting) can be defined as the written record of everything that's happened during a meeting. They're used to inform people who didn't attend the meeting about what happened, or to keep track of what was decided during the meeting so that you can revisit it and use it to inform future decisions.

What should you include when writing meeting minutes?
The five steps that you must include are:

Pre-Planning
Record taking - at the meeting
Minutes writing or transcribing
Distributing or sharing of meeting minutes
Filing or storage of minutes for future reference

New to writing meeting minutes?

Whether you’ve been tasked with taking notes for a committee or you’ve been appointed Secretary to the Board of your organization, preparing meeting minutes doesn’t have to be an arduous task. Here are some tips and ideas that will help you get started with writing and preparing effective meeting minutes, as well as a meeting minutes sample and a meeting minutes template that you can follow.

This guide on how to write meeting minutes was prepared by Wild Apricot to help the volunteers and/or staff of small non-profits and membership organizations who may be new to the task of taking and preparing minutes of meeting for committees or Boards of Directors.

Please note that since the format, style and content requirements for meeting minutes varies depending on the organization and the type of committee or Board, this article offers only general guidelines to help get you started.

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What is the purpose of meeting minutes?

You shouldn’t be intimidated by the term “minutes” since it’s actually a little misleading. After all, your committee or Board doesn’t want or need a record of its meeting proceedings minute by minute! But it is important to capture the essence of the meeting, including details such as:

decisions made (motions made, votes, etc.)
next steps planned
identification and tracking of action items

Minutes are a tangible record of the meeting for its participants and a source of information for members who were unable to attend. In some cases, meeting minutes can act as a reference point, for example:

when a meeting’s outcomes impact other collaborative activities or projects within the organization
minutes can serve to notify (or remind) individuals of tasks assigned to them and/or timelines

Why are they called minutes of a meeting?

According to Today I Found Out, the "minutes" of "meeting minutes" don't refer to the minute measurement of time, but to the "minute" (my-newt) notes taken during meetings.

What’s involved with meeting minutes?

As mentioned above, there are essentially five steps involved with meeting minutes:

Pre-Planning
Record taking - at the meeting
Minutes writing or transcribing
Distributing or sharing of meeting minutes
Filing or storage of minutes for future reference

1. Pre-planning meeting minutes:

A well-planned meeting helps ensure effective meeting minutes. If the Chair and the Secretary or minutes-taker work together to ensure the agenda and meeting are well thought out, it makes minute taking much easier. For example, depending on the meeting structure and the tools you use, the minutes-taker could work with the Chair to create a document format that works as an agenda and minutes outline as well.

What is the agenda of a meeting?

Meeting agenda = outline:

At the very least, it’s important to get a copy of the meeting agenda and use it as a guide or outline for taking notes and preparing the minutes – with the order and numbering of items on the minutes of meeting matching those of the agenda.

In addition, the agenda and/or meeting notice also provides information that will need to be included in the minutes, such as:

the names of all the meeting attendees, including guests or speakers
documents that are sent out with the agenda or handed out in the meeting – copies (digital or hard copy) of handouts should be stored with the meeting minutes for future reference and for sharing with those who were unable to attend the meeting (and others as determined by the meeting’s Chair).

Clarifying Expectations:

When you take on a new role as minutes-taker or Secretary, be sure to ask the Chair of the committee or Board what their expectations are of your role during the meeting, as well as the type of detail he/she expects in the minutes. For example, if your Board or committee will be dealing with motions, or voting on items/issues, be clear on whether you need to offer names of those making motions, seconding, etc. If you will be dealing with this type of procedures, you (and your Chair) may want to refer to Robert’s Rules of Order.

2. What should be included in meeting minutes?

Before you start taking notes, it’s important to understand the type of information you need to record at the meeting. As noted earlier, your organization may have required content and a specific format that you’ll need to follow, but generally, meeting minutes usually include the following:

Date and time of the meeting
Names of the meeting participants and those unable to attend (e.g., “regrets”)
Acceptance or corrections/amendments to previous meeting minutes
Decisions made about each agenda item, for example:
Actions taken or agreed to be taken
Next steps
Voting outcomes – e.g., (if necessary, details regarding who made motions; who seconded and approved or via show of hands, etc.)
Motions taken or rejected
Items to be held over
New business
Next meeting date and time

Tips that might help your note taking:

Create an outline – as discussed earlier, having an outline (or template) based on the agenda makes it easy for you to simply jot down notes, decisions, etc. under each item as you go along. If you are taking notes by hand, consider including space below each item on your outline for your hand-written notes, then print these out and use this to capture minutes.

Check-off attendees as they enter the room - if you know the meeting attendees, you can check them off as they arrive, if not have folks introduce themselves at the start of the meeting or circulate an attendance list they can check-off themselves.

Record decisions or notes on action items in your outline as soon as they occur to be sure they are recorded accurately

Ask for clarification if necessary – for example, if the group moves on without making a decision or an obvious conclusion, ask for clarification of the decision and/or next steps involved.

Don’t try to capture it all – you can’t keep up if you try to write down the conversation verbatim, so be sure to simply (and clearly) write (or type) just the decisions, assignments, action steps, etc.

Record it – literally, if you are concerned about being able to keep up with note taking, consider recording the meeting (e.g., on your smart phone, iPad, recording device, etc.) but be sure to let participants know they are being recording. While you don’t want to use the recording to create a word-for-word transcript of the meeting, the recording can come in handy if you need clarification.

Minutes writing Sample