Meeting minutes what is

He named the phenomenon the forgetting curve. Even though this theory was developed over years ago, it still holds true. Ebbinghaus found that when learning is reinforced by reviewing the new information, recall improves.

Meeting notes also help ensure everyone leaves with a clear understanding of how to move forward. Or rather, you think you decided. But in reality, your team walked away with different conclusions from your conversation.

Plus, it provides a log to refer back to when similar issues arise in the future. These notes will act as the source of truth. For example, if two conflicting points are said, the note-taker should establish which is true before writing it down. Instead, use the items on the agenda to help guide your notes. Under each agenda item, summarize what you discussed and lay out next steps for that particular topic.

A good meeting agenda is the foundation of great meeting notes. Both are key to an effective meeting! Assigning next steps during each meeting is key to meeting follow-through.

The less ambiguity you have in your meeting notes, the better! And here's the template based on the informal meeting minutes sample at the top of this article:. Do you have an all-hands staff meeting coming up? Here's a free template for you to download or copy. What is the purpose of this team meeting?

Include any objectives and discussion topics. Does this meeting have a pre-planned agenda or structure? Include it here for easy reference. What were the main insights from this team meeting? Include key decisions made, progress reports, and any opportunities, issues, or concerns that should be shared with colleagues.

Is there any other valuable information worth sharing? It does not have to be directly related to the meeting topic. List all key stakeholders not present and other departments that this information should be shared with. Clarify next steps, who's completing them, and when they should be done by. Note this information here to share and assign. How will we keep in touch and stay up-to-date about progress?

Should we schedule another meeting? When adding tasks and action items to your meeting notes, here are five steps to follow. A meeting participant must take ownership of every single task, otherwise that task may not be completed. It is up to the person who is responsible to keep track of details. Even if there is no clear date, often an arbitrary one, such as one week, is helpful for creating urgency to do the task. In formal situations, the note-taker is often the secretary, an executive assistant, or an admin.

In less-formal meetings, the person taking the minutes may simply be a volunteer. Begin by carrying over any threads from the previous meeting, as well as large discussions or time-sensitive business.

Leave more minor agenda items for the end. See here for more tips on creating effective meeting agendas. When considering what type of file or document to use for your meeting, the most important factor to consider is how you will save and share your minutes. Standard files like Word Docs, Excel spreadsheets, and PDFs all have a similar limitation as templates for meeting minutes—they need an extra step to be used or shared.

Opening any of these file types requires a special program that not everyone may have access to. Additionally, regular files like Word Docs and PDFs need to be saved carefully in the cloud, with attention to not having multiple versions of the same file in dispute.

Often meeting minutes are also emailed, but email should not be the only place the meeting minutes live. The minutes should also be saved somewhere centralized so they can be found later if need be. The best solution is often a cloud-based type of document, such as a Google Doc.

Even better is a doc in a free meeting management system like Hugo, where notes are easily shared or kept private , and automatically organized. Meeting minutes are a recounting of what happened at the meeting. Certain formal meeting minutes do need to be certified in some way in order to be an official record of a meeting. Often the Chair needs to review and approve the minutes before they can be circulated. Or, for many organizations, minutes are reviewed and approved by the group at the beginning of the next meeting.

Customer Reviews Success Stories. Expert Webinars Targeted Impact. Contact Us Log In. Try Now. Table of Contents. New To Writing Meeting Minutes? What Are 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 For more detail on each step, read on! Or if you're just looking for a list of meeting minutes templates, check out this post.

What Is the Purpose of Meeting Minutes? But it is important to capture the essence of the meeting, including details such as: decisions made motions made, votes, etc. 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.

Pre-Planning Meeting Minutes: A well-planned meeting helps ensure effective meeting minutes. What Is the Agenda of a Meeting? Motions taken or rejected Items to be held over New business Next meeting date and time You can find more templates and details on formatting meeting minutes here. 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.

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 it — literally, if you are concerned about being able to keep up with note taking, consider recording the meeting e. Meeting Minutes Template: Here's a simple template you can refer to next time you need to take meeting minutes. Meeting Minutes Sample: Still wondering if you're taking notes correctly? Here are some tips that might help: 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 additional notes or clarify points raised. Also check to ensure all decisions, actions and motions are clearly noted. Avoid personal observations — the minutes should be solely fact-based If you need to refer to other documents, don't try to summarize them. Rather, simply indicate where they can be found or attach them as an appendix. Online sharing The method of sharing or distribution will depend on the tools that you and your organization use.

Brought to you by Slite , a communication tool that empowers remote-first teams. Table of contents What is a project outline. Nobody loves meetings at Slite. So we put together a simple, actionable, step-by-step guide to help you write effective meeting minutes.

What are meeting minutes? They make meetings more efficient Meeting minutes can help avoid endless discussion and back-and-forths because they make things more efficient. They outline the meeting's structure As a general rule, a meeting leader should never go into a meeting without a precise plan outlining what needs to be discussed. Keep everyone up to speed You can simply send meeting attendees a copy of the relevant meeting minutes and they can bring themselves up to speed right away.

Avoid forgetting about important topics Meeting minutes ensure that nothing gets forgotten in your meetings. Improves client relationships Meeting minutes can be great accountability tools for clients. Meeting purpose Every meeting should have one central goal. Agenda items Great meeting minutes should include all the agenda items that were addressed at a meeting. Next meeting date and place At the end of the meeting, your team should determine how long it will be until everyone needs to meet again.

If anything is unclear, speak up and ask for clarification right away so you won't have to poke around after the meeting. Don't leave room for ambiguity. Only capture essential points. Write down the main decisions and action items concisely, and be sure not to miss any.