Meeting minutes are important notes that hold the record of necessary information like agenda items discussed during the meeting. As a matter of fact, the outline or format of meeting minutes may vary depending type of information you want to record. On that note, we created different meeting minutes examples and templates to help you easily transcribe the minutes. There are also some basic data a meeting minute must have which we will discuss below.
Simple Meeting Minutes Tutorial and Examples
- What should Minutes of Meeting include?
- Meeting minutes template for Word
- Meeting minutes template for Excel
- Meeting minutes template for Google Docs
- Meeting minutes template for PDF
- Online meeting minutes template (GitMind)
What should Minutes of Meeting include?
Taking meeting minutes can be done in many ways based on the preference of a certain group or the type of information you are recording. While some groups stick to a specific format, the assigned person usually include these information on minutes of meeting sample:
- Date and time the meeting took place
- Names of participants both present and absent
- Agenda items covered during meeting
- Follow up actions taken to the previous meeting
- Decisions made follow up actions
Meeting minutes template for Word
Meeting minutes do not need to be complicated so you don’t need any special program to get this done. You can create an understandable using the available tools on your computer. One of the most accessible tools you can use is Word.
Example for Word #1
This template provides the necessary information a meeting minutes must-have. At the top-left corner presents the date including the month, day, and year. Along with it is the time the meeting was held. You will also see here the name of the participants, agenda items or topics, time allocated for each agenda, and who presented them. If you are only conducting a simple meeting, this meeting minutes example should be a great help.
Example for Word #2
When conducting a simple meeting, this template is a good place to start. There is no special formatting needed like tables or any illustrations. Another thing to note is that all items to fill out are written in linear form making it easy to jot down or customize the minutes of the meeting sample according to your needs.
Meeting minutes template for Excel
You can also take advantage of taking down minutes with the help of a table using Excel. This version allows you to easily keep track of details especially if the meeting involves a bunch of information and different categories. Another advantage is that users may use color-coding so that it’s easy to sort things out. Take a look at the meeting minutes template examples created using Excel.
Example for Excel #1
Five sections are included in this version of the template. The first section comes with the basic information like the date of the meeting, time, who prepared the minutes, etc. Underneath sections are meeting objectives, attendees, admin, and old business.
Example for Excel #2
Here is another meeting minutes template version created using Excel. Before proceeding to the agenda items, the note taker will need to determine first the project title, meeting date, location, and other basic details. You can also use this approach wherein the main categories are arranged in a row and under while items are organized in a column form.
Meeting minutes template for Google Docs
Google Docs is another tool you can use to create comprehensive meeting minutes. It operates like MS Word and offers some basic functionalities as Word. With it, you can customize the font, color, text alignment and so much more. You may refer to the simple meeting minutes template for Google Docs below.
Example for Google Docs #1
Although the tool offers simple functionalities, you can still create detailed meeting minutes in just a few simple steps. Using this version of Google Docs version meeting minutes you may include all the necessary information and show the category of details using a table-based layout.
Example for Google Docs #2
If you are accustomed to writing notes using bullet form, this meeting minutes example should be useful. This version uses both numbering and bullet approaches in listing down information. The only disadvantage though is it takes too much space on the page. The more information input, the more page it will take.
Meeting minutes template for PDF
For those of you who are looking for editable PDF minutes, you are free to use the below meeting minutes template examples. What’s good about PDF is that you can secure the file or document with a code especially if it contains sensitive information or you want to keep it private.
Example for PDF #1
Another example is a business meeting minutes where it presents the board meeting date and time in phrase instead of creating another section for the time and date. It also lists the attendees both present and absent, approval minutes, reports, and when was the meeting is adjourned in the latter part of the meeting minutes example.
Example for PDF #2
Want a more organize meeting minutes? you can use the table-layout approach just like the example below. Each table represents a certain category. In fact, you can combine both tables and bullet layouts according to your needs.
Simple meeting minutes template (GitMind)
For a more interactive and creative minute, you can use the mind mapping approach. GitMind is by far the best free mindmaps you can find online. It encourages you to be creative by integrating a variety of mind mapping layouts while making it easy to understand for the readers. Also, if you are interested in creating your first meeting minutes example using a mindmap, see the examples below.
DownloadExample by GitMind #1
Using GitMind you can build a simple yet creative minute. With this template, you can present well what were the activities at a specific given time. Also, with its AI Mind Map, you can also upload your written minute and let the tool scan it to generate a mind map for your minute instantly. There are five agendas or activities that took place as seen in the illustration. Interestingly, the tool lets you add floating nodes wherein you can insert additional information. That way, you don’t need to squeeze in all the information on the map or in one branch.
Example by GitMind #2
For a more comprehensive minute of meeting sample, you can download and edit this template from GitMind. The template comes with pictures associated with the activities or actions performed. They make your minutes easy to understand with the integration of attachments while making it appealing to look at.
Example by GitMind #3
Product planning is a gruesome and tiring process. Add that to the fact that there are a lot of information that you should digest during the meeting. That is why taking minutes is highly-recommended for these types of meetings. On that note, you can use the meeting notes template made by GitMind, one of the best meeting minutes apps, the next time that you attend a product planning meeting. It is easy to use, and can be edited so that you can add the information tackled during the entire meeting.
Example by GitMind #4
Meetings are held either by surprise or by schedule. Take this template for example, which is a type of meeting that happened by surprise to set the goals for the new year. For those who are taking the minutes of the meeting, they can simply replace the texts of this meeting minutes template.
Conclusion
There are no rules or standards for taking minutes. As long as you were able to collect and organize all necessary information discussed, you should have no problem. Meanwhile, if you haven’t done this before, you can use these meeting minutes template examples to record any type of minutes.
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