Meeting minutes do not retell the meeting. They pin down what was decided, who owns it and by when.
People rarely reread minutes to find out what was said. They reread them to find out what was agreed, usually when someone remembers it differently. Anything that does not serve that rereading makes the document heavier and slower to send.
Six sections are enough. The template is below.
Three documents that all get called "minutes"
Before writing, decide which one you are producing. They differ in length and in purpose.
| Document | What it contains | When to use it |
|---|---|---|
| Formal minutes | A faithful, neutral record of the discussion, votes and resolutions. | Formal bodies: board meetings, general assemblies, works councils. Often legally binding. |
| Summary minutes | Topics covered, positions held, decisions and actions. | Project meetings, steering committees, client meetings. |
| Decision log | Decisions and actions only, no discussion. | Weekly team check-ins, short recurring meetings. |
In most companies the right choice is the shortest one that does the job. A decision log sent within the hour beats full minutes sent the following week.
The six sections that are enough
- Header. Subject, date, place or video tool, author.
- Attendees. Present, apologies, people in copy. Those who were absent read the document most carefully.
- Objective. One sentence. It lets you judge later whether the meeting achieved it.
- Decisions. In the past tense, no conditionals: "Launch is moved to 15 November", not "we might consider pushing it back".
- Actions. Each with a named owner and a dated deadline. An action without a name gets done by nobody.
- Open points. What was not settled, and the next chance to settle it.
A template to copy
| Section | Example |
|---|---|
| Subject | Steering committee, website redesign, no. 4 |
| Date and place | Tuesday 30 September 2026, 10–11 am, video call |
| Author | Claire M. |
| Present · apologies · copy | Claire M., Hugo D., Sami B. · Lina R. · sales management |
| Objective | Confirm the go-live date. |
| Decisions | 1. Go-live is set for 17 November. 2. The English version ships after the French one. |
| Actions | Hugo D.: deliver mobile mock-ups, 10 October. Sami B.: get the hosting quote, 8 October. |
| Open points | Translation budget: to be settled at committee no. 5, 14 October. |
This template fits on one page. If yours needs three, it is usually transcribing the discussion instead of concluding it.
A written example
The table suits a tracking tool. In an email, the same minutes read better in a few lines:
Steering committee no. 4, website redesign · 30 September 2026
Present: Claire M., Hugo D., Sami B. Apologies: Lina R.Decisions. Go-live is set for 17 November. The English version will follow the French one.
Actions. Hugo delivers the mobile mock-ups on 10 October. Sami gets the hosting quote by 8 October.
Open point. The translation budget will be settled at the committee on 14 October.
Unless I hear back by Friday, these minutes stand as approved.
Nine lines. Someone who was absent knows what changed, someone who was there knows what they have to do, and nobody needs to relive the meeting to find out.
Minutes of a general meeting
Minutes of a general meeting follow other rules, because they bind the organisation. For a French association, the 1901 law sets no format: the articles of association do, and you should reread them before writing. In practice, general meeting minutes record:
- the date, time and place, and how the meeting was called;
- the number of members present and represented, and the quorum if one is required;
- who chaired the meeting and who took the minutes;
- the agenda, item by item;
- each resolution, with the vote: for, against, abstentions;
- the signatures of the chair and the secretary.
Here neutrality matters more than brevity. Debates can be summarised, but resolutions are copied word for word, as voted. For a commercial company, general meeting minutes are mandatory and follow the stricter rules of the French Commercial Code.
The mistakes that make minutes useless
- Sending them late. After 24 hours everyone has rebuilt their own version of the meeting, and the minutes become something to negotiate rather than a reference.
- Following the clock. A decision taken at minute 50 ends up at the bottom of the page, under ten paragraphs of context. Group by topic and open with the decisions.
- Attributing opinions for no reason. "Hugo thinks the date is unrealistic" freezes a position Hugo may have dropped ten minutes later. In summary minutes, decisions have owners; opinions do not need authors.
- Writing "TBD" or "to follow up". Those words flag an action with no owner. Replace them with a name and a date, or move the topic to open points.
- Skipping sign-off. Minutes sent with "unless I hear back by Friday, these stand as approved" hold up far better later than a document nobody reread.
Recording to write: what it changes
Whoever takes the minutes takes a poor part in the meeting. They write while others talk, and decide on the spot what deserves a note. Recording the meeting frees that person: they listen, and the minutes are written afterwards from the transcript.
Two rules then apply. Attendees must be told before the recording starts, as we explain in Recording a work meeting in France: what the law says. And once the minutes are approved, the audio has done its job: keeping it without a reason means holding personal data you no longer need.
Key takeaways
- Minutes exist to reread decisions, not to relive the meeting.
- Pick the shortest format that does the job: often a decision log.
- Six sections: header, attendees, objective, decisions, actions, open points.
- Every action has a name and a date. "TBD" is not an action.
- Send them within 24 hours and ask for explicit sign-off.
Notus records the meeting and writes the summary in about thirty seconds: decisions and actions to review, correct and send.
Discover Notus →