Taking great meeting notes requires focus, attention to detail, extreme accuracy, and the ability to distill the information into relevant concepts. This means that preparation is in order.
Bookmark this guide and share it with anyone responsible for capturing the minutes of a meeting. It's a high-level look at the essential tips that can help keep the team aligned and on-task.
Let’s take a closer look at:
Meeting minutes are a real-time written record of everything that happens during a meeting. A designated note-taker usually records the meeting minutes, or the team can rotate the role.
The purpose of meeting minutes (also called a minute record) is to provide an official record of a meeting for any interested party’s future reference. It can offer institutional history, a reminder of action items for meeting participants, and notes for anyone who couldn't attend.
The chair and secretary or note taker should meet ahead of time so the note-taker understands what will happen during the meeting and prepare to capture the main points.
Decide on a meeting structure and supportive tools to enhance the participant experience. That might include sending a polly ahead of time to get team input and make meeting agenda items more inclusive. A polly captures instant feedback within your team and works seamlessly with Slack, Zoom, or Teams.
There will be a lot of information flying around, so it helps to know what's most important to focus on in your notes. Be sure to abide by any specific formats or meeting minutes templates provided. Or, if you don’t have a template yet, start by including this key information:
Use free meeting minutes templates to make taking notes super simple.
After the meeting, it's time to synthesize all the information so you can share the minutes with the group. As the note taker, it's your job to edit the minutes for clarity and distill the gems in the discussion, especially when there's a lot of chatter happening.
Use formatting to highlight or distinguish critical decisions or action items from the rest of the meeting minutes.
Try to finish compiling the meeting minutes soon after the original board meeting or team meeting so you don't forget any details.
It's essential to have the team leader review and approve them, or the meeting minutes won't be considered official.
The minutes can be shared verbally at the start of the next meeting or shared in advance using email or Google Docs. For the latter, ensure the permissions are correctly set so attendees can freely access the document without any hassle or unnecessary steps.
Many groups opt to vote to approve minutes at the beginning of the next meeting.
After you make revisions according to the notes from the team leader, board of directors, chair, or the committee and gain approval, it's time to store them.
Depending on the size of the organization you work for, you might use one or many of these storage methods:
Whether you're a note taking maverick or somewhat new to the role, here are the top takeaways for solid notes:
We already mentioned Google Docs above. Still, the best part of the Google Workspace is that it provides a great user experience that allows for real-time collaboration among participants, yet requires next to no training.
Otter.ai is a tool that helps turn meeting audio into a searchable transcript, so your note-takers can focus instead on participating in the discussion. Start off for free with basic features and upgrades for a greater minutes allotment.
We saved the best for last. Polly can help with anything from board meetings to informal meetings. It helps gather relevant input by allowing participants to add their notes to agenda templates, helping create a meaningful meeting experience. Then, you can gather meeting feedback post-mortem and get to know what matters most to your team to continuously improve the meeting structure.
Polly syncs up beautifully with the tools your team is already using (Microsoft Teams, Slack, and Zoom), and it provides a simplified and user-friendly experience.
Meeting minutes don't have to drag your energy or feel monotonous. Understanding the purpose behind them and how to enhance your notes and improve their accuracy can help any note taker create insightful records..
The tips in this guide provide an easy reference point to help you plan meeting minutes, record and share them efficiently and proudly reflect on a job well done in the future. For more ideas on how to get the most out of your meetings, keep an eye on the Polly blog. Or, use Polly for free in your next meeting to see how it can support the whole team.