Meeting Minutes and Meeting Notes Templates
Meeting minutes are the formal record of a meeting: attendance, decisions, votes and owners, approved at the next meeting. Meeting notes are a lighter working record of what was discussed and who does what by when. Both templates are free in Word and PDF.
Meeting minutes template — formal record: agenda, decisions, votes, signatures.
Meeting notes template — everyday notes: decisions, action items, owners, due dates.
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Rather not take notes by hand? Dalm is a Mac app that records the meeting — a call or a room — and drafts the notes from the transcript. Get early access
Meeting minutes vs meeting notes: which template to use
Use minutes when the group has to be able to show later what it decided: boards, committees and formal team meetings. They record who attended, what was on the agenda, what was decided and who is responsible for what, and the group usually approves them at its next meeting. Use notes for everyday syncs, one-off calls and project meetings, where the readers are the people doing the work and nobody approves anything. If a reader only needs the outcome, neither is right: send a one-page summary instead.
| What it records | Who reads it | Is it approved? | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Meeting minutes | Attendance, agenda, each decision, votes, owners | The group itself, and anyone who needs the record later | Usually, at the next meeting |
| Meeting notes | What was discussed, what was decided, who does what by when | The people in the meeting and their team | No |
| Meeting summary | The outcome and three to five key points on one page | People who were not there | No |
A board that votes on motions needs more than either: use the board meeting minutes template. For a weekly team or department meeting, the staff meeting minutes template is shorter.
Minutes of meeting format: what to include
The minutes template has nine parts, in the order a reader looks for them:
- Header — organization or team, meeting, minutes number, date, start and end time, location or call link, chair, secretary.
- Attendance — who was present and in what role; absences and apologies; guests.
- Agenda — the items, numbered in the order they were taken.
- Agenda items — for each item: who presented it, the key points of the discussion in two to five lines, the decision, and the vote if one was held (for, against, abstained).
- Action items — number, action, owner, due date.
- Open items carried forward — what the meeting did not settle.
- Next meeting — date, time, place.
- Adjournment — the time the meeting closed.
- Signatures — chair and secretary: name, signature, date.
The vote and the signature lines are blank for the secretary to fill in. Whether your group needs a vote count or signed minutes is set by its own rules. This layout is a starting point, not legal advice.
Meeting minutes example
Example (fictional). Names and events are invented.
| Organization / team | Sales department |
| Meeting | Department staff meeting |
| Minutes No. | 14 |
| Date | Thursday |
| Time | 11:00–12:00 |
| Location | Meeting room 3 |
| Chair | A. Romanov |
| Secretary | E. Kim |
Attendance. Present: A. Romanov, E. Kim, T. Vlasova, P. Dorokhov, M. Shevchenko.
Agenda
- Quarter results
- Replacing the CRM
- Vacation schedule
Item 1. Quarter results
| Presented by | A. Romanov |
| Discussion | Plan met at 87%. The gap is in mid-market after two managers left in July. |
| Decision | Accept the quarter results as satisfactory given the staffing situation. |
Item 2. Replacing the CRM
| Presented by | T. Vlasova |
| Discussion | Two options compared. Main argument against the current CRM: no proper data export. Migration cost discussed. |
| Decision | Run a pilot of the new CRM in one department before a company-wide decision. |
Item 3. Vacation schedule
| Discussion | Not all department heads submitted data. |
| Decision | Carried forward to the next meeting. |
Action items
| No. | Action | Owner | Due date |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Prepare the cost estimate for CRM migration | T. Vlasova | by the 20th |
| 2 | Collect vacation data from department heads | E. Kim | by the next meeting |
Open items carried forward
- Which department runs the CRM pilot — not decided.
- Vacation schedule.
Next meeting. The following Thursday, 11:00, meeting room 3.
Signatures. Chair: A. Romanov ________ Secretary: E. Kim ________
How to fill in meeting minutes
Minutes are read by people who were not in the room, sometimes months later, so they have to stand on their own. That is why they record what the meeting concluded rather than how it got there: a reader should find every decision and every owner without reading the discussion. Five rules come with the template:
- Outcomes, not dialogue. For each agenda item write what was decided, not who said what.
- Decisions word for word. If the group agreed on specific wording, copy it exactly.
- Owners and dates only if named. If no owner or date was set, write “not set” — don’t guess.
- Unresolved items go to “Open items carried forward”, not into decisions.
- Approve the minutes at the next meeting and keep the signed copy.
Meeting notes template
The notes template is for use during or right after a meeting. It has eleven parts, and any part that stays empty is deleted:
- Meeting details — title, date, time, location or call link, note-taker.
- Attendees — name and role or team; who was absent, if it matters.
- Summary — three to five sentences: what the meeting was about and where it landed.
- Purpose of the meeting — why the group met, if it was stated out loud. One or two lines.
- Key topics — each topic and what was said about it, in two to four sentences.
- Decisions — the decision and who made it, if that was stated.
- Action items — action, owner, due date, status.
- Needs an owner — actions agreed without a named person.
- Open questions — raised and not answered.
- Risks and blockers — the risk or blocker, and what or who it affects.
- Next steps — the next meeting, and what the group is waiting on.
Meeting notes example
Example (fictional). Names and events are invented.
| Meeting title | Weekly product sync |
| Date | Tuesday |
| Time | 10:00–10:30 |
| Location / call link | Video call |
| Note-taker | Marina |
Attendees
| Name | Role / team |
|---|---|
| Marina | Product |
| Ilya | Engineering |
| Anya | Design |
| Sergey | Analytics |
Summary. The team reviewed progress on email sign-in and the calendar integration. The integration is blocked by a contractor who has not granted access, so work continues on mock data. Testing of sign-in may slip because the tester is out sick.
Key topics
| No. | Topic | What was said |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Engineering | Email sign-in is done and in testing. Calendar integration has started. |
| 2 | Design | Settings screen mockups are finished and handed to engineering. |
| 3 | Analytics | The August conversion export is ready and waiting for review. |
Decisions
| No. | Decision | Made by |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Don’t block the calendar integration: continue on mock data until access arrives. | Team |
Action items
| No. | Action | Owner | Due date | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Email the contractor again about access, with an escalation | Ilya | Today | Open |
| 2 | Review the conversion export and bring findings to the next sync | Sergey | not set | Open |
Risks and blockers
| Risk or blocker | What or who it affects |
|---|---|
| Calendar integration depends on contractor access — no reply for three days | Integration timeline |
| Sign-in testing may slip — the only tester is out sick | The release |
Next steps
| Next meeting | Thursday, usual time |
| Waiting on | Contractor: access to the calendar API |
Sections “Purpose” and “Open questions” were removed: nothing was said on them.
How to fill in meeting notes
Notes are for the people who have to act on the meeting, usually the same day. They work when each fact sits in one place and nothing in them is a guess: a reader who trusts the owner column should never find a name that nobody actually agreed to. Seven rules come with the template:
- One fact, one section. If something is an action item, don’t repeat it under decisions or next steps.
- Decision vs. action item. A decision is what the group agreed on. An action item is who does what by when. “We’re building the calendar integration. Pete, by Friday” is both. “Pete will look into the integration” is only an action item.
- Owners. Write an owner only if the person was clearly named. If it’s unclear, leave the field empty and move the item to “Needs an owner”. A guessed owner is worse than a blank one.
- Due dates. Write a date only if one was said. Otherwise write “not set”. Keep vague timing (“as soon as possible”) as text, not as a date.
- Open questions are things that were raised and not answered. Once answered, move them to decisions.
- Notes, not a transcript. Record conclusions and commitments, not who said what line by line.
- Empty sections go. If nothing was said about risks, delete the section rather than writing “none”.
Writing action items
An action item starts with a verb, so it reads as something to do: “Email the contractor”, not “Contractor access”. It gets an owner only if a person was named in the meeting; otherwise it goes under “Needs an owner”. It gets a due date only if one was said; otherwise the date is “not set”. When the action list is the only thing people will read, the action items template keeps just that.
Note-taking template: ways to take notes during a meeting
The template gives the notes their shape; how you fill it while people are talking is a separate choice. Four ways work:
- By agenda. Write under each agenda item as it is taken. Best when the meeting has an agenda sent beforehand.
- By columns. Keep three columns — decisions, actions, questions — and ignore the rest.
- Keywords now, sentences after. Write only keywords during the meeting and fill in the template straight afterwards, while you still remember.
- One named note-taker. Agree who writes before the meeting starts, so everyone else can listen.
The steps themselves are in the full guide to taking meeting notes.
Drafting these minutes from a recording
You do not have to fill this in by hand. Dalm is a Mac app that records a meeting — a call or a room — and drafts minutes from the transcript in one click. Add its ready-made “Meeting minutes” template, and a draft can write itself after every meeting.
Your speech is recognised on your Mac, and no audio leaves it; what goes to our servers is the transcript, as text, and a language model writes the draft from that text. Read the draft against the sections above and fill in what it leaves out. Check the names before it goes out: until you confirm who a voice is, the name may be the app’s own guess. The draft edits as plain text and saves as Word, PDF or Markdown.
See plans · For teams
What the software does with a recording, and where it stops, is on meeting minutes software that drafts them from a recording.
Related templates
- Board meeting minutes template — motions, votes and a quorum line, for a body that votes.
- Staff meeting minutes template — status by area, blockers and tasks for a weekly team meeting.
- Meeting summary template — the outcome on one page.
- Meeting recap email template — for a client or anyone outside the room.
- Meeting agenda template — the plan for the next meeting.
- Action items template — only the list of who does what.
- Meeting minutes template for Word — the same record as a print-ready .docx with a Heard — Discussed — Decided block per item.
- Meeting minutes template for Excel — the same record as a log, one row per item, to filter by owner and sort by deadline.
- Printable meeting notes template — the notes on one page as a PDF, to print and fill in by hand at an in-person meeting.
Questions
- What is the difference between meeting minutes and meeting notes?
- Minutes are the formal record of a meeting: who attended, what was on the agenda, each decision, any vote, and who is responsible for what. They are usually approved at the next meeting. Notes are a working record for the people doing the work: what was discussed, what was decided, and who does what by when. Nobody approves them, and empty sections are simply deleted.
- What should meeting minutes include?
- A header with the meeting, date, time, place, chair and secretary; attendance, with absences and guests; the agenda; for each agenda item who presented it, the key points, the decision and the vote if one was held; action items with an owner and a due date; open items carried forward; the next meeting; the time the meeting closed; and a line for the chair and the secretary to sign.
- How do you write meeting minutes?
- Record outcomes, not dialogue: for each agenda item write what was decided, not who said what. Copy agreed wording exactly. Give an action an owner and a date only if they were named, and write "not set" otherwise. Put anything unresolved under open items, not under decisions. The guide to writing minutes covers what to leave out and how a draft becomes the approved record.
- How do I write action items in meeting notes?
- Start each one with a verb, so it reads as something to do. Write an owner only if a person was clearly named in the meeting; if nobody was, move the item to "Needs an owner" instead of guessing. Write a due date only if one was said, and "not set" if it was not. Keep vague timing, such as "as soon as possible", as text rather than turning it into a date.
- Who signs meeting minutes and when are they approved?
- In this template the chair and the secretary each have a line for a name, a signature and a date, and the minutes are approved at the next meeting. Until then they are a draft. Whether your group needs signed minutes, and who has to sign them, is set by its own rules; this page is a template, not legal advice.
- Are these templates free? Do I need to sign up?
- Yes, both are free, and no, there is nothing to sign up for. The minutes template and the notes template each download as a Word file and as a PDF, with no account and no e-mail address asked. The files are in English and carry no product name or branding, so you can add your own logo, rename sections or delete the ones you never use.
- How do I take notes during a meeting?
- Pick one way and stay with it for the whole meeting: follow the agenda item by item, or keep three columns for decisions, actions and questions, or write only keywords and fill in the rest straight afterwards. Whichever you choose, agree before the meeting starts who is taking the notes. The full guide to taking meeting notes goes through each step.