Sample meeting minutes to be sent to participants

Meeting minutes are a reference document in a company: they deserve care in both substance and form. What sets them apart from simple notes is that they are written to be read by others, including people who were not there. Here is how to structure, write and send them so that they keep a record of the discussion and turn decisions into action.

What are the contents of meeting minutes?

Minutes report on what was said and decided in a meeting. To do this, the person writing them, often called the meeting secretary, records the essential points of the meeting. They rely on their notes and can ask participants for help before approval.

The content usually follows this order:

• The context: the reason for the meeting, the people concerned and, if needed, the history of previous discussions;
• The topics discussed, in agenda order or by importance, with a neutral summary of the discussion;
• The decisions taken, worded without ambiguity;
• The actions to be carried out, each with an owner and a due date;
• The points left open and participants' remarks.

For a full definition and the different forms of minutes, see our article on the definition of meeting minutes. To understand what they are really for, read what is the purpose of a meeting report.

How should the minutes be structured?

Always using the same structure makes the minutes recognizable: participants know where to find what concerns them. They have four distinct parts:

1. The header: company logo, meeting title, date and place, agenda, attendees, absentees and apologies, name of the writer.
2. The introduction: the context and purpose of the meeting, in two or three sentences.
3. The body: for each agenda item, a summary of the discussion, the decisions taken and the actions assigned.
4. The conclusion: the date of the next meeting, any remarks, attachments.

Use a heading for each item, and set decisions and actions apart so that they stand out. A busy reader should be able to read only them.

The sample to copy

Here is a sample ready to adapt. Square brackets show the information to replace.

For a more complete template, with a detailed layout and a filled-in example, see our template for the presentation of a meeting report. And to see the sample applied to a management committee: an example of executive committee minutes.

Drafting steps for an operational working document

1. Prepare before the meeting: copy the agenda into the template, so that you only have to fill it in. Good notes make everything else easier; our guide to taking notes in meetings on Teams describes the method.
2. Write up quickly: ideally the same day, while the discussion is still fresh.
3. Think of the reader: write for someone who was not there. Short sentences, a neutral style, no jargon or unexplained abbreviations.
4. Check decisions and actions: each action has an owner and a due date; each decision is worded so that it cannot be reinterpreted.
5. Get approval: the chair or the person responsible for the meeting reviews before sending. They commit the meeting to the content.

Sending the minutes to participants

Minutes are only useful if they arrive on time and reach the right people.

• Timing: send them within 24 hours. The later they arrive, the later the actions start, and the less participants read them.
• Recipients: all participants, absentees and those who sent apologies, and anyone assigned an action even if they did not attend.
• Format: in the body of the email for short minutes, as an attached PDF for a document to keep or archive. A PDF guarantees the layout is the same for everyone.
• Channel: by email, or in the team's workspace (meeting chat, Teams channel, management tool), so that the document is easy to find.
• Confidentiality: some subjects (HR, sensitive projects, financial results) should not be widely circulated. If needed, prepare a restricted version.
• Corrections: set a deadline for reporting errors, then consider the minutes approved.

Sample covering email

The message that accompanies the minutes is often the only text read in full. It should tell each person what they need to do:

Mistakes that make minutes useless

• Transcribing instead of summarizing: word-for-word minutes are not read.
• Burying decisions in the text: if readers have to look for them, they will not find them.
• Actions without an owner or a date: they will not be done.
• Sending late: a week later, the minutes are only useful for the archives.
• No follow-up: the actions in the minutes must be reviewed at the start of the next meeting. Otherwise, the same subjects come back.

Our guide to meeting minutes brings all our methods and templates together.

In practiceMinutes ready to send, without writing themPerfony transcribes the meeting, structures the minutes according to your template, creates the actions with their owner and due date, and sends them to participants. Free 15-day trial.Discover automatic minutes