Content and Formatting of Meeting Minutes: Some Tips

Whether you attended a meeting or are affected by its decisions, you will receive its minutes. This document is drawn up at the end of the session and formalises the decisions taken during the debates, so that everyone can take on the actions that concern them. If you are the writer, here are some tips on what to put in the minutes and how to present them.

The purpose of the minutes guides their content

As secretary of the meeting, you write its summary. The minutes have two jobs: keeping an accurate memory of what was said and decided, and telling each reader what they now have to do. Every choice of content follows from these two jobs. A detail that serves neither memory nor action can be left out; a decision or an action must never be.

Your readers usually have little time to spend on the document. Get to the point, and organise the minutes so that the decisions and actions can be found in a few seconds.

Stay faithful and impartial

To give an accurate record, report what was said during the debates as faithfully as possible. Your own feelings must not interfere with the summary: remain impartial, even on a subject you care about.

• Report positions without judging them: "The sales team asked for a two-week delay", not "The sales team once again asked for a delay".
• Use the terms used in the meeting, so that members find the exact steps of the discussion.
• Make the minutes understandable to someone who was not present: explain acronyms and give the context of each item in one sentence.
• Attribute a statement to a person only when it matters for the decision.

The essential elements

Some information must appear in any meeting minutes:

• the date on which the meeting was held, and its place or video link;
• the list of people present;
• the list of those absent, excused or not;
• the agenda that was scheduled;
• the different points that were discussed;
• the decisions that were finally adopted;
• the distribution list of the minutes.

Then specify the steps to be taken: the actions, the people who carry them out, the deadlines to be met and, when relevant, the skills or resources needed. A summary table of actions at the end of the document is the easiest way to present them.

How much detail?

The right level of detail depends on the meeting and on who will read the minutes.

For most operational meetings, the record of decisions is enough and is the most likely to be read. You can see one in practice in our example of CODIR minutes.

A form to be respected

For readers to understand the document quickly, keep to a classic presentation and reuse it from one meeting to the next.

• Company identity: follow the company's publishing guidelines, with its letterhead and font. If no font is imposed, choose one that is pleasant to read, serious and without frills, and limit yourself to two fonts.
• A clear title, followed by the elements listed above, always in the same order.
• One heading per agenda item, spaced out, with bulleted lists rather than long paragraphs.
• Decisions highlighted, for example in bold, so they stand out when skimming.
• Page numbers and a footer on each page, indicating your role as writer or secretary and the date of writing.

For a complete layout with a filled-in example, see our meeting report presentation template.

Writing style

• Be concise. Short sentences, one idea per sentence.
• Use the present tense. "The committee approves the budget" reads more directly than a mix of past tenses.
• Write decisions as facts, with a date when there is one: "The launch is postponed to 15 May".
• Start each action with a verb: "Send", "Validate", "Update", followed by the owner and the deadline.

Our 5 tips for writing good meeting minutes cover the rest of the process, from preparation to the right time to write.

Distribution and archiving

Distribute the minutes in PDF format so that the content cannot be modified after validation, and keep the source file for future corrections. Send them to everyone on the distribution list, including excused participants, and store them in a shared place where they can be found again before the next meeting.

Always keep in mind the function of the minutes and their reader, and favour a pleasant layout. Then make sure the actions do not stay in the document: in Perfony, actions decided in a meeting go into a shared action plan with their owner and deadline, and come back on the agenda of the next meeting. For the full method, read our meeting minutes guide.