Now, I know that sounds obvious - don’t all meetings have minutes? 

Well usually, of course, but how effective are those minutes? 

Do you read minutes after the event? 

Can you easily see what actions you had? 

Are you the person writing the minutes, and finding it overwhelming to write them?                                                                                                                                                               

Meeting minutes are important to keep an accurate, summarised record of the meeting and any actions. It doesn’t have to be 20 pages long - in fact, that is exactly what you don’t want to see! 

Now, here’s the important thing: this is not your opportunity to produce your best script or to put your own creative spin on what happened in the meeting.  It’s essential to provide an impartial, summary.  Your friend will be the meeting agenda and minutes template. If you don’t already have a Minutes Template, Project Plan can help!                                                                                               

Project Plan has a Minutes Template set up and ready to use. It’s a permanent fixture in our notebook and one that we can whip out at a moment notice and help us note down the important things and stay on track. 

So, first things first - who was there? You don’t want to frantically wrack your brain to remember attendees because you forgot to write it down there and then!                                                             

Don’t worry - your template will remind you to note the names down.  If someone joins or leaves part way through the meeting, note in the body of the minutes when they joined or left.  In the attendee’s section write the attendee’s full name and then initials after the name – that way, that person can be referred to by their initials for the remainder of the minutes. 

Next, make sure you have the agenda with you. Meetings should follow the agenda - it will help remind you of the subject being discussed.  When you write the minutes, refer to the Agenda Item Numbering and copy the Agenda Item exactly - this will help your minutes to be easily read.   

Your notes are purely for you to be able to write your minutes, so how you choose to write your notes is completely up to you. The important thing is to make sure that your notes are legible and concise! Remember, this is just a summary.   

Throughout the meeting it is likely that actions will be allocated to attendees. It is good practice to note the action when it occurred in the meeting, as well as who is doing it, and a deadline date – all of this will help to form your actions log.  If the meeting is a one off, add the action log at the end of the minutes.  If the meeting is part of a series of meetings, create an Excel Spreadsheet - a rolling sheet that tracks the progress of Actions and when they’re closed for the meeting series. We have suggested a format below that works for us, this can be used in either situation (see Appendix 1).

It is important to have a separate Actions Log as it is often the section that attendees need to pull out quickly. Having a clear, easy format helps actions to be kept on top of and future meetings to run smoothly.  If you use the rolling Excel Actions log, once the action is completed, a completion date can be added, and the action can be moved to the ‘completed’ sheet.  This enables an accurate audit log to be kept for future reference. 

Unless otherwise agreed, aim to distribute the minutes within a week of the meeting, but always try to write the minutes as soon as possible after the meeting. Minutes are a bit like homework – it is always best to do your homework the day it was given because the work is fresh in your mind. Stroppy teenagers obviously know better and will leave homework to the night before (usually the morning of) and then struggle, trying to remember what they are supposed to be doing!  Turns out, if you do the work straight away, it makes life a lot easier in the long term!   

And that’s it - a whistlestop tour of writing minutes! It’s hardly the most exciting part of any day but one that is unavoidable and dare I say it, essential.  No one will thank you for mixing up action owners or waffly minutes! 

Take a look at our Project Plan on Etsy for our Meeting Notes template – so you can apply all of these tips and tricks to record minutes to the best of your ability! 

Appendix 1 - Example Action Log