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Meeting minutes templates

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Slite
Capture a summary of everything that happened in team meetings, from important takeaways to follow-up actions with our free meeting minutes template. Keep these easy to read and to find for anyone who wasn't able to attend the meeting.
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What are meeting minutes templates?

Meeting minutes, also known as meeting notes or meeting templates, are basically the summary of everything that happened at a given meeting. Regardless of the size of the meeting or the matter(s) being discussed, meeting minutes help keep all attendees on track. They also provide an official record of important details for those who were unable to attend....

Meeting minutes or it didn't happen, am I right?

Formal meeting minutes are more important than ever as more and more team meetings are being brought online. 💻 We're all familiar with how long and aimless Google hangouts can be without some structure. Our free meeting minutes template can help you avoid that!

What can a meeting minutes template do for me?

You won't realize how useful meeting minutes templates are as project management tools until you try them. Give them a shot because...

You'll increase efficiency

A productive meeting is a good meeting, right? No one likes meetings that drag on without direction, and meeting attendees will be more motivated to attend meetings and participate actively if they feel that their time is being used effectively. A template will help organize your information to achieve that efficiency.

On-hand meeting notes and takeaways

You'll have an official record of your organization's most important news, projects, and decisions that can be easily referred back to and circulated. Many organizations use meeting notes at board meetings, project meetings, committee meetings, and annual meetings for this reason. Your handy meeting minutes template is stored with Slite for easy access from anywhere.

Saves time

It's all about delegation. Meeting notes help save lots of time in terms of task management - and with the right template, you'll always know who's responsible for which task! Task delegation is woven into the fabric of meeting notes, which ensures that all team members do their part and are aware of their roles.

Stay on top of things

People will be better informed. It's easy to catch people up on the happenings of missed meetings with meeting minutes to refer back to. Attendees can also refresh their own memories by referring back to meeting notes at their convenience. An online template can easily be shared with all team members.

Perfect for revisiting ideas

If you have second thoughts about a decision you made during a meeting, you can examine attendees' main ideas in the minutes. This will help you see the situation differently and our meeting minutes template ensures consistency for easy reading!

Planning next-steps

It's important to keep meeting minutes if you want to stay on track with your goals and reflect company strategy. A meeting minutes template keeps all your information organized from meeting to meeting.

Can be used for any meeting

No matter the kind of meeting, there's always information to be organized!

Pro Tip: Remember, meeting minutes can be useful at informal meetings and simple meetings as well.

Things to include into a meeting minutes template

Meeting notes vary depending on the situation, but most include variations of the following:

Key details

A formal minutes of meeting template refers to this as the call to order. Here, basic information such as the date, time, location, team and/or organization name, attendees present and not present, and the board of directors is noted.

Approvals & Modifications

The approvals and modifications portion covers previously discussed items and changes, and brings the board up to date on any situational changes that may have arisen since the previous meeting.

A list of agenda items to be addressed

The agenda portion of a meeting minutes template helps meetings stay on track. Each item is assigned to a presenter, with an estimated time slot provided for discussion. This encourages participants to stay focused and avoid tangents that waste time and can derail a meeting.

A list of decisions made

One of the main reasons for using a board meeting minutes template is to create a record of key decisions made at the meeting. With a meeting minutes template from Slite, you can consolidate ideas and plan ahead for the next meeting.

A list of action items or motions to be taken

A meeting minutes template should assign each action point to one of the attendees, even if they need to delegate it further. Knowing who is responsible for each action point will make tracking progress easier in future meetings.

Unfinished business, follow-ups, and items to be held over until the next meeting

To avoid confusion after the meeting, the meeting minutes template should indicate what needs to be done and list items to be covered at the next meeting. This information should be clear and concise. For example, "research X product on X market" is better than "research X product."

Any announcements or new business to be noted

At the end of the minutes, attendees need to mark the next meeting date and time. The meeting minutes template also needs to include any mention of new events that have been planned. It is important to be precise with action items and avoid unclear terms like "a week from now" or "when the research is complete."

Adjournment and the scheduling of the next meeting

Before the meeting is adjourned, set a date, time, and place that works for the majority of attendees.

Slite's free meeting minutes template

Many organizations simply aren't motivated to invest time into putting together an effective meeting minutes template. Don't make that mistake! Your initial effort will pay off tenfold in the future.

Slite's here to make your life easy. Our meeting minutes templates free use will help you put together effective meeting notes for your organization in no time. We'll help transform your meetings into streamlined, efficient, and actionable work sessions that your team members look forward to attending.

Related templates

Meeting Note Template
Meeting Agenda Template
Employee one-on-one meeting template doc

How can I get started?

Here are some pointers that will help you customize your minutes of meeting template to best suit your team's needs.

Thinking About What Your Typical Meetings Look Like

Meeting minutes will only be truly effective if they're well-suited to your organization's needs. Reflect on your previous meetings or past meeting agendas. Ask yourself questions like: "What agenda items do we typically cover?" This should help inform your meeting minutes sample template.

Considering Your Organization's Most Important Meetings

Reflect on your organization's most important meetings and consider what makes them important. These will be the kinds of meetings that should absolutely be recorded using a minutes of meeting template. Does your organization make key decisions at your annual meeting? What about your monthly meetings? Your Board of Directors meetings?

Establishing Key Players

Note down the key people that are usually part of your organization's most important meetings. This will likely include attendees such as your Board of Directors, where applicable.

Learn from minutes from the previous meeting

In advance of the meeting, send the minutes from the previous meeting to all attendees. This allows them to familiarize themselves with the key decisions that have already been made and encourages them to actively participate in the upcoming meeting.

Type in all the information you have before the meeting starts

Your meeting minutes template should include as much information as possible about dates, times, logistics, and goals. The more information you can provide, the easier it will be for attendees to follow the meeting.

Customize your meeting minutes template

For a short, update meeting, feel free to remove items from the meeting minute template that will not be covered. If you will not be making strategic decisions or holding member votes, those sections can be eliminated. Also add anything that might be missing from your template, like brainstorming sessions or a report analysis.

Be sure to make any changes before the meeting so you won't waste time trying to fit the meeting to a template that is not well-suited for recording the proceedings.

Keep it simple

Taking notes for a meeting involves more than just plugging data into a meeting minutes template. You must prioritize the most important points, pay attention to specific challenges people raise, and take notes on all the specific factors that contribute to the challenge. Once you have done this, you can relax once the discussion starts and wait for the final decision.

Focus on major takeaways

When filling in meeting summary templates, it is important to catch any major takeaways or observations that can help shape your business. If members open up a discussion about specific reports, you can attach those reports to the conversation and highlight relevant sections. Keeping track of these priorities will help you stay on top of the meeting's content.

Additional tips for note-taking with Slite's meeting minutes templates

Meetings can become overwhelming, with fast-talking presenters and key takeaways flying by before you can write them down. Slite's meeting minutes free template can help, and you can also use these time-saving tricks to improve your note-taking skills:

Use initials

When mentioning participants in a meeting, only use their full names at the start. For the rest of the meeting, refer to them by their initials. This will make it much easier to keep track of the meeting participants who are responsible for making key decisions and assigning tasks.

Use short words and acronyms

Whenever possible, use short words and acronyms when using a simple meeting minutes template. For example, rather than writing out your business development team's full name, simply write BD.

Keep your sentences short

When filling out your meeting minutes template, your goal is to write down as much helpful information as possible in an easily understandable form. Worry less about grammar than about making sure your notes contain the necessary data.

Appoint a note taker

Decide whether one person will be responsible for note-taking, or if it will be a rotating position.

Fill in your meeting minutes template without these mistakes

Here are some mistakes you should avoid when you are writing meeting minutes:

Personal Opinions

The meeting minutes should contain facts related to the meeting. A template for minutes of a meeting should focus on speakers, decisions, and motions. Your thoughts about the meeting should be kept separately in a notebook.

Recording everything

In most cases, meeting minutes summarize the key points of the meeting and are not a transcription. All you need to do is summarize the important details, not compile every pause or digression.

Writing notes by hand

Trying to find a specific point of discussion in ten pages of handwritten notes can be a nightmare, and retyping it takes time and resources. A digital meeting summary template makes it easy to compile the important points during the meeting and to share information afterward.

How to handle minutes after the meeting

The meeting minutes should include all decisions made and the next steps for everyone. It is important to remind all attendees to review the meeting notes to ensure the upcoming meeting is as effective and efficient as possible. A paperless approach is better than sharing meeting minutes in paper form after they have been completed. Slite's free meeting minute template makes collaboration and sharing easy, and our sample meeting minutes template can serve as input for building and modifying your next minutes template.

Meeting minutes template by Slite

Here are some ways that Slite's free minutes of meeting template can help make putting together meeting minutes easier.

Collaborate in real time

Slite's easy meeting minutes template lets you share your meeting agenda in advance and view, discuss, and comment on it with internal and external collaborators. This speeds up the process of correcting mistakes and producing a final meeting minutes document that satisfies everyone.

Synced at all times

With Slite, the entire team can see agendas, including changes and discussions, at the same time. This keeps all your team members in the loop and saves you the hassle and confusion that inevitably comes when you are trying to manage multiple versions.

Increased visibility and ease of search

Slite's template for meeting minutes lets you document details directly in the agenda. This means that teams can keep track of everything that occurred and keep details in context. It also enables team members to search across past and current meeting content, and lets you manage what team members and other interested persons access specific information.

Use meeting minutes for a more organized experience

Too many team meetings veer off on tangents and get bogged down in unhelpful discussions. Slite's free meeting minutes templates help you ensure that all participants are kept in the loop and that all speakers know the exact topic of their presentation and the time allotted. Slite makes it easier to put together highly effective meeting minutes, and that leads to more effective meetings. Get ready to take organized, real-time notes by filling in your template at your next meeting!

Questions & answers

What is a minutes of meeting template?

Meeting summary templates are structured docs with pre-filled content to help your team beat the blank canvas. Slite comes with a library of templates for all of your workflow needs. From meeting notes to handbooks, team members can use, edit, create and share any template in your Slite workspace.

How do I duplicate a Slite meeting minutes template?

Click or tap the "Duplicate" button at the top-right of the template or "Start with this doc" to add the template to your team's workspace (or create a new workspace and get started!).

Where do I find templates in my workspace?

You can find the Templates library when you scroll to the bottom of the left sidebar in Slite. The templates shown there will be available to use and edit by everyone in your team. When you create a new empty doc, you'll also see an option to "Use a template". This button will open the template picker and let you browse the templates your team has created as well as suggested templates from Slite.

Can I create a template in my workspace?

Yes, you can create a new template from any doc in your workspace. With the doc open, click on the three dot "More" actions menu in the top right to find the "Save to templates" action.

How can I reuse the same template for recurring events?

Funny you should ask. Yes! In Slite, you can automatically create recurring docs to manage your team's regular meetings, stand-ups or check-ins. Use a template so each new scheduled doc created will be pre-filled with the structure, prompts and tagged people that you need.

What are the 3 types of meeting summary templates?

A board meeting minutes template can come in three forms:

Meeting actions
is a concise summary of decisions reached and actions taken.

Discussion minutes include summaries of the discussions leading to the decisions.

Verbatim transcripts are a record of all conversations during the meeting.

What is the format for writing a meeting minutes template?

The following sections are a list of the essential points that should be included in any meeting minutes template. Feel free to add more sections to your minutes of the meeting sample template if necessary.
- Title
- Date and location
- Objective
- Deadlines
- Discussion topics
- Follow-up actions
- Plan for the next meeting

Questions & answers

Can't find what you're looking for? Visit our Help Center.

What is a template?

Templates are structured docs with pre-filled content to help your team beat the blank canvas. Slite comes with a library of templates for all of your workflow needs. From meeting notes to handbooks, team members can use, edit, create and share any template in your Slite workspace.
Learn more

How do I duplicate a Slite template?

Click or tap the "Duplicate" button at the top-right of the template or "Start with this doc" to add the template to your team's workspace (or create a new workspace and get started!).

Where do I find templates in my workspace?

You can find the Templates library when you scroll to the bottom of the left sidebar in Slite. The templates shown there will be available to use and edit by everyone in your team. When you create a new empty doc, you'll also see an option to "Use a template". This button will open the template picker and let you browse the templates your team has created as well as suggested templates from Slite.

Can I create a template in my workspace?

Yes, you can create a new template from any doc in your workspace. With the doc open, click on the three dot "More" actions menu in the top right to find the "Save to templates" action.

How can I re-use the same template for recurring events?

Funny you should ask. Yes! In Slite, you can automatically create recurring docs to manage your team's regular meetings, stand-ups or check-ins. Use a template so each new scheduled doc created will be pre-filled with the structure, prompts and tagged people that you need.

How can I share my Templates with the Slite Community?

Use this form to submit your favorite Templates to us! We'll review it and get in touch with you before sharing it with the world.