What Should Be In Your Meeting Minutes

Why are Meeting Minutes important?

Meeting minutes remind attendees of important highlights, action items and key decisions made during a meeting. They also serve as a great way to update those that cannot attend and help increase accountability within an organization.

What should be included?

Meeting minute formats vary from company to company, but most include a few basic items:

Pre-Meeting items:

• Meeting time/date/location
• Meeting attendee’s + those unable to attend names
• Meeting attendee’s + those unable to attend email addresses
• The accepted meeting agenda
• The meeting objective

In-Meeting items:

• Action items assigned
• Key decision outcomes
• KPI’s
• Next Steps
• Next meeting time/date

Post-Meeting

• Make sure action items and decisions are clearly notated
• Decide as a team how quickly meeting minutes should be sent (recommended ASAP)
• Decide how meeting minutes should be sent:
  • Email
  • Hard copy
  • Less Meeting
  • Dropbox / Box
  • Google Docs / Evernote
  • Sharepoint

The Writing Process

The best meeting minutes are meeting minutes that get read. While you can’t guarantee that, you can take steps to help increase the odds:

• Keep them brief
• Make them legible
• Be objective
• Include only the most important highlights
• Avoid fluff (usually equates to reducing adjectives)

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