What meeting minutes are and how to take them.

Everyone can take notes, but the minutes of a meeting are the responsibility of one designated person. Sometimes that individual is an executive assistant. Often, a meeting attendee is asked to fill the role in advance.

Having a designated minutes-taker ensures accountability. That person will work during and after the meeting to summarize discussion points, clarify decisions, define the next steps, and list action items. After the meeting, they are responsible for distributing the minutes to all participants, typically using a platform like Adobe Acrobat for business to maintain accessibility and security.

Before the meeting.

• Be physically and mentally ready. Get your body and mind prepped to focus and participate. Try to get a good night’s sleep the night before. Don’t come to the meeting hungry. Have a meal or a snack before you begin, and don’t forget your water bottle.

• Determine the appropriate minutes category. Meeting minutes include four main categories. While they all contain the same basic elements, some categories include additional information or emphasize certain areas of the meeting over others.

• Standard meeting minutes. Best for team updates, staff meetings, and company all-hands.

• Detailed meeting minutes. Best for project meetings, client meetings, and annual employee reviews.

• Formal meeting minutes. Best for executive meetings, board meetings, and HR proceedings.

• Informal meeting minutes. Best for team huddles, stand-up meetings, and employee check-ins.

• Use a template. You don’t have to reinvent the wheel each time you take minutes. Use a meeting minutes template to ensure your minutes contain all the required elements, look professional, and are easy to distribute. You can customize the templates to meet your specific needs and company branding. Using a template also allows you to type your notes directly into the layout, making formatting and editing easier after the meeting ends.

• Review the agenda. Most formal meetings will have an agenda, some more detailed than others. If you have been asked to take minutes for a meeting without an agenda, request that the meeting leader create one. Use the agenda as an initial outline for the structure of the meeting. You can look at the topics scheduled to be discussed and get an idea of what details in the meeting will be most important.

During the meeting.

• Reduce distractions. As the official minute taker, you’ll need to be an active listener and stay attentive throughout the entire meeting. Silence your cell phone and other smart devices, turn off notifications on your computer, and consider working on a clean desktop screen so you won’t be distracted by other open windows or applications.

• Group items by relevance. Meeting minutes, unlike transcriptions, do not follow chronological order. Instead, group items by topic, type, and relevance — action items alongside other action items, discussion on the latest sales proposal alongside the rundown of other current leads, and so on.

• Stick to the facts. Minutes are a factual record. They should not include personal opinions or judgments. Instead, strive to write accurately and objectively.

• Record the meeting. You don’t need to write down every word you hear or take notes on every detail during a discussion. Remember that minutes are not a transcript. If possible, record the meeting audio so you can reference it later and don’t have to worry about missing something important. If recording isn’t allowed, focus on taking minutes as things happen. Don’t try to add details after the meeting ends.

• Ask for clarification. Ask questions during the meeting. If you miss a comment or a point of discussion that doesn’t make sense, speak up immediately. It’s not impolite to ask someone to please repeat themselves or restate a comment. They know it’s your responsibility as the minute taker to get things right. And, if you’re worried about interrupting, you can say something like, “Excuse me, for the minutes, may I clarify…?”

After the meeting.

• Take advantage of AI. Modern minute takers can take advantage of new tools like Adobe AI Assistant for Acrobat to help them create AI meeting notes. The AI summarizer feature automatically generates meeting summaries and identifies action items from Microsoft Teams and Zoom transcripts. This tool can be useful during the editing process to ensure you haven’t missed anything important in your initial minutes draft.

• Request supporting documents. If reports, slide presentations, visuals, or any other documents were presented or referenced during the meeting, request a copy to include with the minutes.

• Check for spelling and grammar. Before you distribute the minutes, be sure to check the entire document for spelling and grammatical errors.

• Request approval if required. Some organizations may require an executive or team of stakeholders to approve the minutes before distribution. During this review, they can request corrections or additions. When you share the minutes for review through Acrobat, collaborators can add their comments and give their signed approval simultaneously and in a single platform.

What is meant by meeting minutes?

The term meeting minutes can be misleading. While it may sound like they should recap what happened in a meeting minute by minute, minutes are meant to condense the meeting to its most important points and action items. In fact, the term minutes is believed to come from the Latin term minuta scriptura, which means small notes.

How do I write minutes of a meeting?

Write meeting minutes in the past tense. Remember that even though you’re writing notes for the minutes in the present, your audience will be reading them when the meeting is in the past. The most basic minutes should include the date and time of the meeting, the participants invited to attend, who was present and who was absent, agenda topics, key decisions, and action items.

What is the difference between meeting notes and minutes?

Sometimes, the terms meeting notes and meeting minutes are used interchangeably, but they have several differences:

• Use. Minutes are formal company records, while notes are informal and act as personal or team references.
• Level of detail. Notes highlight key takeaways, while minutes thoroughly document all aspects of the meeting, from attendees to discussion to action items.
• Format. Because notes are informal documents, they don’t have to follow a specific format. Minutes do follow a defined format and often use formalized templates.

What is the rule for meeting minutes?

When you learn how to take meeting minutes, you may hear references to Robert’s Rules. This manual of parliamentary procedure dates to 1876 and remains the standard for meetings, facilitating discussions, and group decision-making. Robert’s Rules of Order defines exactly what should be included in meeting minutes. However, most modern businesses do not follow Robert’s Rules except in extremely formal circumstances like executive board meetings.