Meeting Minutes

If you’re a secretary, this article explains how to create, manage, and preview your meeting minutes

Updated over a week ago

Minutes

Minutes are notes that are taken, usually by the secretary, during a meeting. The final minutes are then drafted and distributed after the meeting.

They record:

  • key discussions

  • decisions made

  • motions proposed or voted on

  • any actions or follow-ups

They’re used to provide an accurate record of what happened during the meeting and are shared with all participants after the meeting. They're usually approved by the board or committee in the next meeting.

Open the minutes and add notes

Once you’ve published the agenda for a meeting, you can take notes in the minutes document before, during, and after the meeting.

  1. Open the meeting and select Open minutes. ​

The Minutes page is visible once you’ve published the agenda. If you don’t see the Open Minutes button, publish the agenda and try again.

The meeting minutes page is displayed. You’ll see:

  • The agenda items panel. Select an agenda item to view the linked documents and any motions. Select a document to view it in the board book.

  • The editor, which allows you to format your content

The meeting details, attendees, and agenda items are already populated. Any notes you take are automatically saved for you. You can export the minutes to .docx or .pdf formats.

Manage the minutes during the meeting

  1. Once the meeting starts, a timer is displayed. Keep an eye on the timer to ensure that your meeting runs to schedule.

  2. Use the toolbar to format any notes that you take.

  3. At any point before, during, or after the meeting, you can reset your notes. On the more options menu, select Reset meeting notes.

If you reset your meeting notes, this will remove any changes you made to the agenda after you started taking notes. It will also delete any notes you’ve added.

4. To see what the minutes look like before you share them, on the more options menu, select Preview notes as minutes. You can now share the minutes.

Did this answer your question?