Tips for taking meeting minutes effectively

Mar 8, 2023

Did you ever have summer reading assignments as a kid and wait until the last day before looking up a plot summary and cramming the night before?

Meeting minutes are the equivalent of a good book summary. You get the plot, resources, important topics, and tasks assigned from the meeting—everything you need to ace that pop quiz… have I taken the analogy too far? 😜

Taking meeting minutes is an important part of any team or business gathering. In this blog post, we’ll discuss how to take effective meeting minutes using software tools, templates and tips for taking notes. Let’s get started!

What are meeting minutes?

Meeting minutes are detailed notes from your meeting of the topics discussed, decisions made, who attended and all assigned action items.

Your team can use meeting minutes to confirm decisions, clarify tasks assigned, and document goals and objectives. They also serve as a reference point when clarifying past decisions and topics discussed. And can even be used to help resolve disputes among members who have different interpretations of what occurred during the meeting.

What is the benefit of meeting minutes?

Using meeting minutes is beneficial as it helps teams stay organized and on track with goals. These notes provide a verifiable record of tasks assigned, deadlines set, and even discussions about potential future projects.

As mentioned, meeting minutes are also useful for tracking progress towards specific objectives over time—having quick access to detailed plans from meetings can help teams stay updated on current project statuses or timelines.

These notes also serve as an excellent resource for leaders to review when creating agendas for upcoming meetings; they can quickly reference past topics and decisions from prior meetings to develop more productive agendas focusing on high-value conversations to move the team forward.

Automating meeting minutes

Before we get into meeting minute templates and tips, we’ll ask you: Do you want this task automated? The Bloom Growth™ meeting software comes with many online tools designed to make your life easier, including automated meeting minutes emailed directly to participants after your meeting concludes.

Automated meeting minutes are digital notes gathered from your virtual meeting software that automatically capture important conversations and decisions from your meetings.

The benefits of automating meeting minutes far outweigh manual note-taking: it saves time and eliminates the need for tedious note-taking during the meeting. The software automatically generates meeting minutes, so they’re accurate, comprehensive and detailed, meaning every detail is noticed and remembered.

Just the cherry on top, automated tools can help save resources by reducing paper waste from printing physical notes from each meeting. 💸

Did we mention automated meeting minutes are delivered right to your inbox?

The Bloom automated meeting summary

Our summaries start with an overview of the meeting.
Then, we see a detailed list of to-dos starting with incomplete, overdue tasks in red. Next, you’ll see a list of all tasks completed during the last week, including the team member, date and task name.
After that, you’ll get to the team’s headlines, which are like newspaper headlines with any updates from the team. Examples:
- I’m OOO next Tuesday, who can cover x responsibility?
- Joana got promoted to Senior Designer! Let’s give Joana a big congratulations! <3
Next, a detailed account of each issue solved during the meeting is in chronological order.
- An issue is a topic or agenda item discussed during the meeting.
- Including notes documented on the issue and the person accountable for it.

Onto the template for those choosing to take notes by hand.

Meeting minute template

As discussed, meeting minutes are an important part of any team or business gathering because they provide a verifiable record of tasks assigned, deadlines set and discussions about potential future projects. These templates provide structure to your notes so that you can easily reference past topics and decisions from prior meetings.

The purpose of taking meeting minutes is to capture important conversations, decisions and actions that occurred during the meeting, therefore, meeting minutes should be comprehensive, accurate and concise in order to provide an effective record that can be used for future reference.

When taking meeting minutes, it is important to stay organized and take notes that are both structured and detailed. We recommend using the following template when taking notes from a meeting:

Meeting summary: This is a brief overview of what to find in the rest of the notes. What are the highest priority points from the meeting?
Attendees: Record the names of all attendees present at the meeting so that you know who was involved in any decisions or discussions.
Meeting agenda/issues: Include a list of all topics discussed during the meeting along with any decisions made about each topic. Document important discussions and decisions made during the meeting in detail, including any questions raised by attendees or potential solutions proposed by team members.
Action items/to-dos: Summarize all action items assigned during the meeting and assign each one to a specific team member with due dates.
Discussions & decisions: Document all important discussions and decisions made during the meeting in detail, including any questions raised by attendees or potential solutions proposed by team members.
Follow-up tasks: List out any follow-up tasks needed after the conclusion of the meeting to move forward on projects or initiatives discussed at length during the gathering.
Meeting outcome: Summarize what was achieved during the meeting and what still needs to be done before concluding your notes on the gathering’s proceedings.

Downloadable template

By using this simple—yet effective—template for taking meeting minutes, you will be able to ensure that your notes reflect everything important that occurred during your team’s meetings, allowing for greater organization among members and more efficient progress on projects over time!

Automated meeting minutes are just a few clicks away and your first 30 days are on us. 🔥

Start your 30-day free trial

Tips for taking meeting minute notes

Keeping up with the pace of a meeting while taking detailed meeting minute notes can be challenging, as it requires staying organized and taking comprehensive yet concise notes.

To help make the process easier, here is a list of general tips and guidelines to follow when taking meeting minute notes that will ensure you capture key points from your meetings accurately:

Assign one designated person to keep notes from the meeting.
Focus on capturing key points discussed during the meeting rather than writing verbatim conversations or detailed descriptions of what happened.
Make sure all important decisions, action items and projects are recorded in detail with any questions raised as well as potential solutions proposed by team members.
Pay attention to who is responsible for which task/action item and make sure you document deadlines, so everyone knows when they need to finish their assigned tasks.
At the end of each meeting, summarize what your team accomplished and record any follow-up tasks.
When possible, utilize digital tools such as automated meeting minute summaries for an easier way to stay organized and quickly reference past topics & decisions from prior meetings.

Meeting minutes can be a great way to stay organized and quickly reference past topics & decisions from previous meetings. Consider using meeting software and team meeting tools as they are invaluable when taking meeting minutes. They allow you to easily document key points discussed during the gathering while also tracking action items assigned with deadlines noted for each task.

Bloom Growth automated meeting minutes

Relevant information in one place

Get all relevant information for the next week in your inbox. All upcoming to-do’s and any notes from the last meeting can be found in your automated meeting minutes email.