Meeting minutes serve as an official record of what took place during a meeting session. In addition to serving as an outline, they serve as a written record for those who were unable to attend and for future reference. Minutes serve as a record of what transpired and the decisions that were reached. Minutes are a vital communication tool for your organization when they are written properly and when they are created using a suitable meeting minutes template. Learn and gain access to all you need to know about writing excellent formal and informal meeting minutes in this tutorial. In this section, you’ll find templates, best practices, and answers to frequently asked topics.

5+ Sample Office Meeting Minutes

What Are Office Meeting Minutes?

During a meeting, minutes, often known as MOM (for minutes of the meeting), are kept as a written record of everything that takes place during the meeting period. The purpose of these documents is to tell those who were unable to attend the meeting about what took place, as well as to maintain track of the decisions made during the meeting so that you can review them and use them to inform future decisions. Furthermore, meeting minutes are notes that are taken during a meeting and are then recorded. They draw attention to the most important issues that will be discussed, motions that will be submitted or voted on, and actions that will be carried out. The minutes of a meeting are often taken by a group member who has been designated to do so. Their responsibility is to produce an accurate record of the events that took place during the meeting. There are other associated office meeting minutes that you can acquire such as church meeting minutes, sample business meeting minutes, office meeting notes templates, professional meeting minutes, recording meeting minutes, project meeting notes, monthly meeting minutes, staff meeting minutes, short meeting minutes, organizational meeting minutes, and taking meeting minutes. These templates can be downloaded anywhere in any search engine.

What Is the Purpose of Meeting Minutes?

The term “minutes” should not be frightening to you because it is a little deceptive. After all, your committee or board of directors doesn’t want or need a minute-by-minute account of its meetings! The spirit of the meeting, including details such as choices made (motions made, votes cast, etc. ), next steps to be done, and action items defined and documented, must be preserved. For those who were present, minutes serve as a physical record of the meeting, as well as a source of information for those who were unable to attend. In some cases, such as when the outcomes of a meeting have an impact on subsequent collaborative activities or initiatives inside the company, meeting minutes can be used as a reference point. They can also be used to inform (or remind) employees of their responsibilities and/or deadlines.

What Is the Agenda of the Meeting?

Obtain a copy of an effective meeting agenda and use it as a reference or blueprint for taking notes, setting up your MOM format, and creating the minutes – making sure that the order and numbering of things on the minutes of meeting correspond to the order and numbering of topics listed on the agenda. Additionally, the agenda and/or meeting notice include information that will need to be included in the minutes, such as the names of all meeting attendees, including visitors and speakers, as well as the date and time of the meeting.

Handouts that are sent out with the agenda or handed out during the meeting – copies (either digitally or physically) of handouts should be stored with the meeting minutes for future reference and to be shared with those who were unable to attend the meeting (as well as others as determined by the meeting Chair).

Expectations Should be Clarified as Follows:

In the event that you are taking on a new role as minutes-taker or secretary, make sure to ask the Chair of the committee/board what he/she wants from your role during the meeting, as well as what level of information he/she expects in the minutes before beginning your duties. When dealing with motions or voting on items/issues, for example, make it clear whether you need to provide the names of people who are making the motions, seconding them, or otherwise participating in the voting process. If you will be dealing with this type of procedure, you (as well as your Chair) may want to consult Robert’s Rules of Order before proceeding.

What Should be Included in Meeting Minutes?

Before beginning to record any details, a designated minutes recorder should become acquainted with the types of information that they will be required to record. Although a particular method for taking notes may be preferred by a group, the minutes of a meeting normally include the following information:

Distributing the Meeting Minutes

Following completion of the minutes by the secretary, he or she is responsible for distributing them to the other members of the organization. Their contents can be shared via the internet or through the cloud. Considering how many paper minutes and other types of papers can generate, a paperless sharing solution may be ideal. The minutes’ recorder should consider switching from Microsoft Word, which does not allow for online document sharing, to Google Docs, which has an online file sharing system. Additionally, a copy of the meeting minutes is meant to be kept on file by the recorder for future reference as well. Minutes are often kept on Google Docs or OneDrive by the vast majority of corporations.

Tips in Taking Meeting Minutes

Taking down the minutes of the meeting can be easy as 1,2,3. By following a simple procedure can guarantee quality-based minutes of the meeting. Here are some tips for you to recognize in taking meeting minutes.

Develop a Plan Based on the Agenda: As previously noted, having an outline (or template) based on the agenda makes it simple for you to simply jot down notes, decisions, and other relevant information beneath each item as you go along. You should consider providing space underneath each item on your outline for your handwritten notes, then printing them off and using them to capture minutes if you are taking notes by hand.Take Attendance as People Enter the Room: If you are familiar with the meeting attendees, you may check them off as they come; if not, have people introduce themselves at the start of the meeting or provide an attendance list that they can check off themselves. In order to ensure that decisions or notes on action items are recorded appropriately, they should be recorded as soon as they are made in your outline.If Clarification Is Required: For example, if the group moves on without reaching a choice or reaching an obvious conclusion, inquire as to the decision and/or future steps that were taken.Don’t Try to Capture it All: You won’t be able to keep up if you try to take down the conversation exactly, so keep it simple (and clear) and write (or type) only the choices, assignments, action steps, and so on. Don’t try to catch everything.You Should Record the Meeting (literally): if you are concerned about being able to keep up with note-taking during the meeting. Consider recording the meeting (on your smartphone, iPad, or other recording devices, for example), but make sure to inform participants that they are recorded. You do not want to utilize the recording to construct a transcript of the meeting that is word-for-word accurate, but the recording may be useful if you require clarification.

How to Write Office Meeting Minutes

Everyone on the team is working 12-hour days, you were required to submit your own patient accountability reports yesterday, and you made plans with your best friends for a night out on Friday. How do you hold the necessary staff meeting to guarantee that everyone receives what they require – and in record time? The same methods apply whether you’re working with a time restriction and a stressed-out crew or organizing your nurses meeting minutes during a period of regular downtime.

1. Take Minutes in Real-Time

Begin by sketching down an outline of the meeting agenda. Fill in the blanks with additional information about agenda items while the material is still fresh in your mind—in real-time.

2. Be Concise

Your creative writing abilities will have to take a backseat (for now). Write the minutes as if you were a reporter for a newspaper. Take notes on what is going on during the meeting. However, only the broad strokes have been recorded in writing. You do not require a verbatim transcript of all that has been said.

3. Fill in the Meeting Minutes Documents

When it comes to writing minutes, there is a delicate balancing act to be performed. Although it is important to keep minutes succinct, you must also offer sufficient background for future reference. Remember that it’s common practice to go over meeting notes at the start of the next meeting, so be prepared. For example, the approval of the minutes from the previous meeting is often the first item on the agenda of a board meeting. As a meeting note-taker, you must make a judgment call about how much context to offer.

4. Just Note the Facts

When preparing meeting minutes, stay away from making personal observations. If you wish to make separate notes for yourself, it is very acceptable to me. However, the minutes of the meeting should be a true record of what was discussed.

5. Use Meeting Minutes in a Right Format

If you’re drafting formal meeting minutes, there’s a specific format you should follow. In the case of labor unions, schools, municipal and county governments, and other organizations. However, with informal meeting minutes, you have a greater degree of flexibility. Consider what your company requires, as well as what has been done in the past. Then iterate on that process to make it better.

Examples of both forms of meeting minutes have been provided for the visual learner. Alternatively, you may skip ahead to our templates by scrolling a little farther down the page. To help you write, refer to this list of resources. It’s important to realize that the information needed for your meetings may differ from this. If you get caught up in copying the samples, you may forget to write your meeting minutes in a way that is valuable to both you and your team members.

FAQs

How Are the Minutes of a Meeting Pronounced?

Despite the fact that the word “minutes” comes from the concept of something being little or my-newt, meeting minutes are pronounced the same way as the word for a minute of time in English. In order to say, “Please take minutes for this meeting,” you would pronounce the term in the same manner that you would say, “There are sixty minutes in an hour.”

What Is the Best Template Format for Meeting Minutes?

The most crucial element to consider when choosing a file type for your meeting is how you will preserve and share your minutes. Using or sharing standard files like Word docs, Excel spreadsheets, and PDFs requires an extra step. These file types require a special program to open, which not everyone has. Regular files like Word Docs and PDFs must also be kept carefully in the cloud to avoid different versions of the same material being in dispute. Meeting minutes are frequently emailed, but this is not the only place they live. The minutes should be saved centrally so they can be found later. The ideal approach is often a Google Doc or other cloud-based document. It’s even better in a free meeting management system like Hugo where notes can be readily shared (or kept a secret).

What Tense Should be Meeting Minutes be Written In?

Meeting minutes are a record of the meeting. They should read like a history book, not like a sports commentator announcing a game live.

Meeting minutes are crucial because they document the most important information that was discussed at the meeting. Taking and preparing minutes, on the other hand, does not have to be a difficult chore. We hope that this post may assist meeting minutes newcomers in getting started in the process of writing good meeting minutes for your company.