What is the purpose of meeting minutes?
Meeting minutes provide an official record of what was discussed and agreed at the meeting. Instead of relying on memory, which can often lead to confusion or alignment issues later, it documents key topics, decisions made and action items with owners and due dates. Doing this leaves less room for gap in understanding or misalignment of expectations.
Everyone who's part of the team—those who attended the meeting and even those who could not—can clearly see the next steps and determine what's expected of them.
Well-drafted meeting minutes solidifies the purpose of the meeting. Every team can benefit from adopting the practice of creating meeting minutes and distributing it with the team.
What is the difference between meeting minutes and agenda?
Meeting agenda specifies the purpose and the goal of the meeting. It also captures each topic to be discussed, person who's assigned to talk about it and the time allocated to them. Agenda is set before the meeting to ensure everyone is aligned on its purpose and have sufficient time to prepare in advance.
Meeting minutes provide conclusion from the meeting after it ends. It's a written record of what transpired in the meeting—discussions, decisions, follow-ups and the next steps.
What things should the minutes of a meeting include?
An effective meeting minutes template should include the following:
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Meeting agenda as agreed upon prior to the meeting.
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Date, time and location where the meeting was conducted.
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Names of people who attended the meeting.
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Key topics discussed during the meeting with presenter and allocated time.
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Decisions made and agreed upon by the group.
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Action items from this meeting with owners and due dates as the next steps.
What should not be included in minutes of a meeting?
Minutes of meeting should not include:
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Disagreements or individual opinions. It should summarize the conclusion and not every point that was considered.
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Personal observations or comments.
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Too many details. It should be clear and concise in simple words.
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Documents referred during the meeting. They can be sent as additional attachments along with the meeting minutes.
How to use meeting minutes template?
Meeting minutes template is provided in 2 versions:
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Version 1: one-pager pdf for small meetings with less decisions or action items.
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Version 2: three-pager pdf for a big meeting with a large number of decisions or action items.
Additionally, the template comes with a notes sheet that you can use to take rough notes during the meeting and then consolidate them later into meeting minutes. To make meeting minutes more effective, use mind maps to organize key ideas, decisions and action items. Also, encourage action owners to fill out implementation intentions to ensure they take the desired action on time.
All pdfs are available in A4, A5 and US Letter size. You can follow the instructions provided in the images to fill out the pdfs. For questions, write to me at products@techtello.com.
Who should take minutes at a meeting?
Meeting minutes can either be taken by a professional hired solely for the purpose of recording the meeting or by one the meeting participants. The person who prepares meeting minutes must be appointed before the meeting starts and made aware of their responsibility to take notes throughout the discussion.
e.g. important board meetings or meetings that need to keep track of organization level decisions may appoint a professional note taker to keep a solid record of the discussion for future reference or serve as a legal document.
What is the most difficult part in writing the minutes of the meeting?
The most difficult part in writing good minutes of the meeting is deciding what to write and what to leave. Trying to write everything is a waste of time and often confuses the participants. Instead listen intently to key decisions made, actions agreed upon and clearly state who needs to do what as the next steps.
What are the abbreviations for minutes of meeting?
People may often get confused if they don't know the acronyms.
MoM stands for Minutes of Meeting.
MM stands for Meeting Minutes.
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