Meeting Minutes Template: How to Write Meeting Minutes
Good minutes record three things: what was decided, who will do what, and by when. Below is a free meeting minutes template you can copy, a filled-in example, and a step-by-step guide to writing minutes before, during and after the meeting. At the end, how to get the minutes from the meeting itself.
- Template to copy
- Filled-in example
- Decisions and actions with owners
- Automatic version without a bot
What meeting minutes are, and what a finished set looks like
Meeting minutes are the agreed record of a meeting: who attended, what was discussed in brief, what was decided and which actions were assigned. Meeting notes are looser. Anyone can take notes for their own use, in any shape, and nobody has to approve them. Minutes are written by one named person, shared with everyone who attended, and in formal settings such as boards, committees, charities and councils they are approved at the next meeting as a correct record. Whether you call the page a meeting notes template or a minutes of meeting template, the structure that works is the same: header, agenda, decisions, actions, open points.
Most teams need action minutes: short summaries per agenda item, the decision, and actions with an owner and a due date. Fuller minutes, which also record the main arguments and who raised them, are worth the effort when a later reader must understand why a decision was taken, for example in a governing body or a negotiation. Verbatim minutes, every word as spoken, are rare and usually only required by specific rules.
Example (fictional). Weekly team meeting, Customer Support. Tuesday 13 October 2026, 10:00 to 10:45, online. Present: Anna Becker (team lead, chair), Jonas Meyer, Lea Hoffmann, Tom Richter. Apologies: Sara Klein. Minutes taken by: Lea Hoffmann.
1. Ticket backlog after the autumn promotion. Open tickets rose from about 120 to 310 in one week; most concern delivery times. Decision: from Monday, delivery-time questions are answered with a standard reply that includes the tracking link. Actions: Jonas Meyer drafts the standard reply, due Friday 16 October. Tom Richter reports the backlog figure at the next meeting.
2. Help centre articles. Three articles are out of date after the returns policy change. Decision: Lea Hoffmann rewrites them; Anna Becker approves before publishing. Action: Lea Hoffmann, due Thursday 22 October. 3. Holiday cover in December. Not settled, because two requests overlap. Open point: Anna Becker clarifies cover with both colleagues before the next meeting. Next meeting: Tuesday 27 October 2026, 10:00, online.
How to write meeting minutes, before, during and after the meeting
Six steps that keep minutes short, accurate and useful a month later.
Before: prepare the header and the agenda
Copy the template, fill in the meeting name, date, time, place or link, the expected attendees and the agenda items. Decide with the chair whether you need action minutes or fuller minutes. A pre-filled page means you can listen instead of typing the basics.
Before: agree who takes the minutes
One named person writes them, and it helps if that person is not also chairing or presenting. In recurring meetings, rotating the role spreads the work fairly.
During: write down outcomes, not every word
For each agenda item, note the point in dispute, the options and the conclusion in a few words. Skip small talk and repetition. Mark attendees who join late or leave early, and note if a decision was taken while someone was absent.
During: confirm decisions and actions out loud
When an item closes, read the decision back and ask: who does it, and by when? An action without an owner and a date is a wish. If nobody answers, record it as an open point.
After: write them up the same day
Turn your notes into full sentences while the meeting is fresh, ideally within 24 hours. Use the past tense and the third person, stay neutral, and leave out opinions and adjectives. Put the actions in one list at the end or directly under each item so nobody has to hunt for them.
After: check, circulate and file
Ask the chair to check the draft, then send it to all attendees and to anyone listed for circulation. File it where the next meeting can find it; the open points and actions become the first item on the next agenda. In formal settings the minutes are approved at the next meeting and any corrections are recorded.
Meeting minutes template to copy
Plain text, so it pastes cleanly into Word, Google Docs, Outlook, a wiki or a notes app. Delete what you do not need, and repeat the item block for each agenda item.
MEETING MINUTES Meeting: [Title or purpose] Date: [DD Month YYYY] Time: [start] to [end] Location: [Room] / online via [tool] Present: [Name (role)], [Name (role)], ... Apologies: [Name], ... Minutes taken by: [Name] Chair: [Name] AGENDA 1. Minutes of the previous meeting and matters arising 2. [Item] 3. [Item] 4. Any other business 1. MINUTES OF THE PREVIOUS MEETING [Approved as a correct record / approved with these corrections: ...] 2. [ITEM] Discussion: [Background, options considered, outcome in two to four sentences] Decision: [What was agreed] Actions: - [Action] | Owner: [Name] | Due: [date] - [Action] | Owner: [Name] | Due: [date] 3. [ITEM] Discussion: [...] Decision: [...] Actions: - [Action] | Owner: [Name] | Due: [date] (repeat for each item) OPEN POINTS - [Question or deferred item] | To be settled by: [date or next meeting] NEXT MEETING [Date], [time], [location or link] Circulated to: [all attendees, plus ...] Approved by the chair: ______________________ Date: ____________
Get the minutes from the meeting itself
It records the meeting on your computer, without a bot
Mr.Speech records your microphone and your computer's audio as two separate tracks, so it works with Teams, Zoom, Google Meet or any other tool, and nobody sees an extra attendee. For a meeting in a room, an in-person mode records a single microphone. Tell the participants before you start: you are still recording.
A transcript that knows who said what
When you stop, the recording is transcribed on your device or on European infrastructure, and an on-device speaker identification model labels each speaker. Name a person once and their voice is remembered locally for future meetings.
Minutes, summary, decisions and actions in one click
One click turns the transcript into a structured protocol, a summary, action items or a follow-up email draft. The AI is instructed never to invent a decision, a task or a name that was not in the transcript, so you review a draft instead of writing from memory.
Actions land on a board
Action items go straight onto a Kanban board with due dates and reminders, in the same app, so the list in the minutes does not die in an inbox.
File it or export it
Export as text, Markdown, SRT or JSON, or keep the meeting as a note with wiki links and search by meaning. Audio is written to disk while recording, so a crash does not lose the meeting.
Questions about meeting minutes
What should meeting minutes include?
The meeting name, date, time and place; who attended and who sent apologies; who took the minutes; the agenda; for each item a short summary, the decision and the actions with an owner and a due date; open points; and the date of the next meeting.
How do you write meeting minutes?
Prepare the header and agenda before the meeting, note outcomes rather than every word during it, confirm each decision and action out loud, then write the minutes up the same day, have the chair check them and circulate them to everyone who attended.
What is the difference between meeting minutes and meeting notes?
Minutes are the shared, agreed record of a meeting, written by one named person and in formal settings approved at the next meeting. Notes are informal and can be kept by anyone for their own use.
Who takes the minutes in a meeting?
Whoever is named for it before the meeting starts: a secretary, an assistant or a team member. It works best when the minute-taker is not also chairing. In recurring team meetings many teams rotate the role.
How long should meeting minutes be?
As short as possible while still standing on their own. For a one-hour team meeting, one page of action minutes is usually enough. A reader who was not there should understand what was decided and who does what without asking anyone.
What tense are meeting minutes written in?
Usually the past tense and the third person, in a neutral tone: "The team agreed to...", "Jonas Meyer will draft...". Keep it consistent throughout.
Do meeting minutes need to be approved or signed?
For an ordinary team meeting, circulating them and inviting corrections is common practice. Boards, committees, companies, charities and other bodies often have their own rules, in their constitution or governing documents, on approving and signing minutes. Check those rules for your organisation; this is general information, not legal advice.
Can AI take meeting minutes?
It can produce a solid draft from a recording. Mr.Speech records on your computer without a bot, labels who said what and produces a structured protocol, a summary and action items in one click, without inventing decisions or names. The person responsible for the minutes should still read and correct the draft before it goes out.
Can I record a meeting to write the minutes?
Often yes, but tell the participants before you start and explain why. In many places their consent is a legal requirement, and it is good practice everywhere. This is not legal advice.
