Customizable Meeting Notes Templates

What are meeting notes?

Meeting notes, more formally referred to as meeting minutes or meeting templates, are document(s) that delineate what happened at a given meeting. Although taking meeting notes is often considered an arduous task, they provide useful written records of all the most important meeting takeaways, insights, and action items.

Meeting notes are highly adaptable and can take many different forms depending on the context. Basically, meeting notes can be whatever you want them to be. Nevertheless, they usually include a few key elements:

• Reports, news, and relevant updates related to previous meetings.
• Basic meeting information. This can include the date, time, location, meeting subject and/or title, team and/or organization name, and attendees present and not present. If any meeting attendees have specific roles for the purposes of the meeting, they can also be noted here.
• The meeting agenda. This includes a list of the most important agenda items to be discussed. Since meeting note-taking usually happens in real-time, this section often includes space to note down discussions had, decisions made, and action items established.

Pro Tip: Make sure that all the agenda items on your meeting notes agenda are assigned to specific people or teams and given approximate deadlines and/or timeframes. This will increase accountability and the ease of follow-ups.

• Concluding remarks, takeaways & future planning. This space is used to note down any conclusions, as well as items to be discussed at future meetings.

What can meeting notes do for me?

Wondering whether taking meeting minutes will really make a difference in your professional life? It will, because they'll...

• Give your meetings some structure. We all hate meetings that drag on needlessly, right? This is getting even more prevalent now that more and more business meetings are being brought online. You're in luck, because meeting notes templates don't only help keep official records of meeting happenings... they also give your meetings structure and ensure that only the most important agenda items on the docket get discussed.
• Keep your team informed. It's easy for team members to catch up on important details from missed previous meetings if meeting notes are readily available.

Pro Tip: Meeting minutes are also helpful resources for attendees who want to refer back to key information and insights addressed in previous meetings.

• Provide you with an official record. Meeting minutes make keeping track of your organization's most important news, initiatives, projects, and decisions a breeze.
• Help you keep track of all your meetings. Meeting notes shouldn't only be used for annual meetings and board meetings. Nowadays, most organizations have a myriad of different types of meetings and they all come with valuable insights. This includes team meetings, follow-up meetings, client meetings, project meetings, staff meetings, informal meetings, and committee meetings.

Slite's free meeting notes template

Many organizations don't truly grasp just how useful meeting notes can be. Here at Slite, we know you won't make that same mistake. We'll make the whole process even easier for you by providing a meeting notes template that looks great, is 100% customizable, and is absolutely free to boot!

We love teams who work collaboratively and want to help you do your best work. Use our templates to turn your meetings into streamlined, efficient, and actionable work sessions that employees truly benefit from and look forward to attending.

How can I get started?

Get started customizing your meeting notes template by:

Identifying Key Attendees

Take note of the key attendees who'll likely attend your meeting. If you're making a generic meeting notes template, think about the team members within your organization that usually attend a variety of different meetings. Make sure to write down their meeting roles and/or positions if applicable.

Thinking About Your Organization's Meeting Style

Your meeting notes template will reflect your organization's meeting style as a whole. Ask yourself questions like: "Are our business meetings usually formal or informal?" and "What meeting structure has worked well for my team in the past?" The answers will help inform the development of your template!

Prioritizing

You don't have to include everything in your meeting minutes. First of all, meeting notes are usually taken in real-time, so it's not realistic to include everything. Second of all, the best meeting notes are comprehensive yet concise. Make sure that your meeting minutes template reflects all the meeting details that you need... Nothing more, nothing less.

That's it! Keep customizing your template and you'll be ready to take next-level meeting notes in no time. Happy collaborating.

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