How To Write Club Meeting Minutes Free Templates

New To Writing Meeting Minutes?

Whether you've been tasked with taking notes for a committee or you've been appointed Secretary to the Lath of your system, preparing meeting minutes doesn't have to be an arduous task. Here are some tips and ideas that volition help you go started with writing and preparing constructive meeting minutes, equally well equally a coming together minutes sample and a coming together minutes template that you tin can follow.

This guide on how to write meeting minutes was prepared by WildApricot to assist the volunteers and/or staff of small non-profits and membership organizations who may exist new to the chore of taking and preparing minutes of coming together for committees or Boards of Directors.

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

Meeting Minute Checklist

What Are Meeting Minutes?

Meeting minutes, or mom (for minutes of meeting) can be divers equally the written record of everything that's happened during a coming together. They're used to inform people who didn't attend the coming together well-nigh what happened, or to continue track of what was decided during the meeting so that you can revisit it and employ information technology to inform future decisions.

What Should You Include When Writing Meeting Minutes?

The v steps that you must include are:

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

For more item on each footstep, read on!

Or if you're only looking for a list of coming together minutes templates, check out this post.

What Is the Purpose of Meeting Minutes?

Y'all shouldn't be intimidated by the term "minutes", since it's actually a little misleading. After all, your committee or Board doesn't desire or need a tape of its meeting proceedings infinitesimal by minute! Only information technology is important to capture the essence of the meeting, including details such as:

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

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

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

Download our Coming together Infinitesimal Checklist for Associations and Nonprofits with examples and learn how to accept better minutes.

Why Are They Called Minutes of a Meeting?

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

What's Involved With Meeting Minutes?

Every bit mentioned in a higher place, there are essentially v steps involved with meeting minutes:

Pre-Planning
Tape taking - at the meeting
Minutes writing or transcribing
Distributing or sharing of coming together 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 Secretarial assistant or minutes-taker work together to ensure the agenda and meeting are well idea out, it makes minute taking much easier. For example, depending on the meeting structure and the tools y'all use, the minutes-taker could work with the Chair to create a document format that works as an agenda and minutes outline also.

What Is the Agenda of a Meeting?

Meeting calendar = outline:

At the very least, information technology's important to get a re-create of the meeting agenda and utilise it equally a guide or outline for taking notes, setting upward your mom format, and preparing the minutes – with the society and numbering of items on the minutes of meeting matching those of the calendar.

In add-on, the agenda and/or meeting find also provides information that will need to be included in the minutes, such as:

the names of all the coming together 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 coming together (and others every bit determined by the meeting's Chair).

Clarifying Expectations:

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

2. What Should Be Included in Coming together Minutes?

Before you beginning taking notes, information technology's of import to understand the type of data y'all need to tape at the coming together. Equally noted earlier, your organization may have required content and a specific mom format that you lot'll need to follow, just generally, meeting minutes usually include the following:

Appointment and time of the meeting
Names of the meeting participants and those unable to attend (e.1000., "regrets")
Acceptance or corrections/amendments to previous meeting minutes
Decisions made near each agenda particular, for example:
- Actions taken or agreed to be taken
- Adjacent steps
- Voting outcomes – e.g., (if necessary, details regarding who made motions; who seconded and approved or via testify of hands, etc.)
- Motions taken or rejected
- Items to exist held over
- New business
- Next coming together date and time

Yous can observe more templates and details on formatting coming together minutes here.

Tips that might help your note taking:

Create an outline – as discussed earlier, having an outline (or template) based on the calendar makes it easy for you to just jot downward 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 manus-written notes, and then impress these out and use this to capture minutes.
Cheque-off attendees as they enter the room - if you lot know the meeting attendees, you can check them off as they arrive, if not take folks introduce themselves at the start of the coming together or broadcast an attendance list they tin can bank check-off themselves.
Record decisions or notes on action items in your outline as shortly every bit they occur to be sure they are recorded accurately
Ask for clarification if necessary – for instance, if the grouping moves on without making a decision or an obvious determination, ask for clarification of the determination and/or adjacent steps involved.
Don't try to capture it all – you can't keep up if you endeavour to write down the chat verbatim, then be certain to simply (and clearly) write (or type) just the decisions, assignments, activity steps, etc.
Record information technology – literally, if you are concerned near beingness able to keep up with note taking, consider recording the meeting (eastward.yard., on your smart telephone, iPad, recording device, etc.) only be sure to let participants know they are being recording. While y'all 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.

Download our Coming together Infinitesimal Checklist for Associations and Nonprofits with sample minutes taken at a meeting and acquire how to have meliorate minutes.

Meeting Minutes Template:

Here's a uncomplicated template yous can refer to side by side fourth dimension you need to take meeting minutes.

meeting minutes template

You can also discover more than meeting minutes templates made for Microsoft Word here.

Meeting Minutes Sample:

Still wondering if you're taking notes correctly? Here'southward a sample of what meeting minutes at a board meeting might look similar.

meeting minutes sample

three. The Minutes Writing Process

Once the meeting is over, it's time to pull together your notes and write the minutes. Here are some tips that might assistance:

Try to write the minutes as soon after the meeting as possible while everything is fresh in your mind.
Review your outline and if necessary, add boosted notes or analyze points raised. Also check to ensure all decisions, actions and motions are clearly noted.
Ensure yous're including sufficient detail
- For Lath of Managing director's minutes in detail, we recommend including a short description of each action taken, as well equally the rationale behind the determination
- If in that location was a lot of discussion before passing a motion, write down the major arguments for and confronting
Edit to ensure brevity and clarity, so the minutes are like shooting fish in a barrel to read
In terms of mom format, here are a few things to keep in mind:
- Be objective
- Write in the aforementioned tense throughout
- Avert using names other than to record motions and seconds.
- Avert personal observations — the minutes should be solely fact-based
- If you need to refer to other documents, don't effort to summarize them. Rather, just point where they can be found or adhere them as an appendix

4. Do Meeting Minutes Have To Be Approved?

Before you share your meeting minutes, make sure that the Chair has reviewed and either revised and/or approved the minutes for circulation. They are not an official tape of a coming together unless this has taken place. Depending on your Board, minutes may also be formally approved at the beginning of the next meeting.

five. Distributing or Sharing Coming together Minutes

As the official "minutes-taker" or Secretary, your office may include dissemination of the minutes.

Online sharing

The method of sharing or distribution volition depend on the tools that you and your organization employ. Since minutes and other documentation can create a pile of newspaper, information technology's corking if yous can apply a paperless sharing procedure. For example, if you lot are using a word processing tool (e.g., Microsoft Word) that doesn't offer online sharing, you might want to create a PDF of the document and transport this and the other attachments or meeting documentation via email. Alternately, if you are all using Google docs – for meeting invitations, agenda and additional document sharing – you can simply "share" the document with that grouping once it has been finalized. Committee or Board members can simply read the documents online and salve a few trees!

Sharing in the Deject?

If your organisation is using a cloud-based membership management system (like WildApricot), yous can publish the minutes as a web page and requite access only to the committee or Board members, depending on your arrangement's needs. Through members-only webpages, you tin create a secure online Intranet for your Board and committees.

Tools Specifically For Meeting Minutes:

If you are wondering most the types of tools you might utilise specifically for meeting minutes, here are some tools that organizations we've worked with have plant helpful:

Google Docs: Also supports collaborative note taking. [Here are some meeting minute sample templates in Google docs. If you ship out a meeting request using Google Agenda, you tin can adhere a Google doctor agenda outline. In one case minutes are crafted (using the outline), you can only share the certificate with the group using their email addresses.]
OneNote: (if you are a Microsoft user) - Very fast and allows for organization of notes. Also support audio recording with respective notation fourth dimension-stamping.
Lucid Meetings: Fantastic coming together-tool to automate your coming together processes like notes, attendance, and system.
Evernote: Groovy note taking tool.
Agreedo: supports creation of meeting minutes and tracking the results.
minutes.io:allows yous to quickly have meeting minutes with hotkey shortcuts and the ability to piece of work online or offline.

6. Filing/Storage of Meeting Minutes

Most committees and Boards review and either approve or amend the minutes at the showtime of the subsequent meeting. Once you've made any required revisions, the minutes will then need to exist stored for future reference. Some organizations may store these online (due east.one thousand., in Google docs or SkyDrive) and also back these upwards on an external hard drive. You may also demand to print and shop hard copies as well or provide these to a staff member or Chair for filing.

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Meeting Minutes Examples

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Meeting Minutes Templates

In Endmost…Enjoy Your New Role

Coming together minutes are important – later all, they capture the essential information of a meeting. But taking and preparing minutes doesn't have to exist a daunting task. Nosotros hope this article helps meeting minutes newbies in getting started in creating effective coming together minutes for your organization.

Thank you for reading our guide on how to write meeting minutes!