Meeting Minutes Templates

Use these templates to save wasted time and skyrocket your team's meeting productivity.

Meeting minutes templates

🏆Pro tips: start having better meetings today

Templates for announcements, updates, and agendas

• Template: Weekly Announcements / Team Updates

• Template: Daily Briefing

• Template: Monthly Recap

• Save Time and Run Effective Meetings with The 4 Ps of Running Meetings

Template: Simple Meeting Minutes

Date: [Date]
Attendees: [List attendee names]

Purpose: [Briefly share the goal(s) of the meeting]

References: [Include links to any analytics, presentation decks, or other resources that would be helpful for attendees to reference]

Agenda:

Template: Team Meeting Minutes

Date: [Date]
Location: [Location]
Attendees: [List attendee names]

Goal: [Briefly list meeting aim(s)/purpose]

References: [Include links to any analytics, presentation decks, or other resources that would be helpful for attendees to reference]

Agenda:

Next meeting date: [Meeting date and time]

Template: Informal Meeting Minutes

Date: [Date]

Goal: [Briefly list meeting aim(s)/purpose]

Relevant documents and information: [Include links to any analytics, presentation decks, or other resources that would be helpful for attendees to reference]

Agenda:

Template: Formal Meeting Minutes

Meeting called by: [Organization name, department]
Date: [Date]
Location: [Location]
Attendees: [List attendee names]

Goal: [Briefly list meeting aim(s)/purpose]

References: [Include links to any analytics, presentation decks, or other resources that would be helpful for attendees to reference]

Agenda for this meeting:

Agenda for next meeting: [List topics to discuss at the next meeting]

Next meeting date: [Meeting date and time]

🏆Pro tips: start having better meetings today

Before the meeting

✅Send an Invitation with the meeting purpose

If your meeting doesn't have a purpose, consider whether you need to have it at all.

✅Determine the agenda for the meeting

The top 5 problems with meetings include:

• Status updates

• Going off topic

• Lack of preparation

• No clear takeaways

• Time management

A well-defined agenda alleviates all of these issues and helps you run efficient meetings.

Your agenda explicitly outlines the main points to be discussed during the meeting. It keeps everyone on track, highlights crucial topics, and reduces time-wasting.

Harvard Business Review suggests framing agenda topics as questions and listing the most important topics first. The agenda must include the list of attendees and any supporting documents necessary for the meeting.

✅Pre-share any relevant links

Allow your attendees to pre-review any documents, data, and information that can provide background and help them prepare for the call.

During the meeting

✅Use a meeting minutes template

A simple tactic that streamlines note-taking is to use a meeting minutes template. The template is a predetermined format that makes it easier for you to create an agenda and outline important topics.

✅Consider using a recording device

Since meetings can move through many topics and decisions quickly, consider recording the meeting on your mobile phone or recording device. Recordings can help you create more accurate and detailed meeting minutes. It’s important to let attendees know that you’re recording them beforehand.

✅Record attendance

The notetaker should arrive earlier than everyone else. For board meetings, the notetaker is usually the board secretary. For team meetings, a project coordinator, assistant, or any attendee can be the note taker.

The notetaker can check off every attendee’s name as they enter the room or video call. Alternatively, you can circulate an attendance list before the meeting starts. Attendees can mark their names on the list and correct any information if needed.

✅Take minutes in real-time

Using our meeting minutes templates above, write down discussion points and decisions as they happen in real-time, right in your browser with Guru's Chrome extension. When information is fresh in your mind, it enables better note-taking.

✅Add context so it’s easy to understand

Create a balance between getting straight to the point and adding enough context for absentees to understand. Your notes should also be useful for future reference.

✅Remove personal observations

Never add personal notes to the meeting minutes. You can take your own notes separately, but the meeting minutes should be a factual and unbiased record.

✅Only capture essential details

During the meeting, focus on capturing essential points, action items, and decisions in your minutes. You can add extra details or clarifying notes after the meeting is completed.

✅Record decisions

To ensure maximum accuracy, note down action items and crucial decisions within your outline as they occur.

✅Use digital format so it’s easy to share

Since meeting minutes are a record of what happened during the meeting, it’s easier to save and share when it’s in a digital format like in Guru.