How to write meeting minutes, with a template

At a glance

What to put in the minutes

The Chartered Governance Institute expects minutes to include, as a minimum, the key points of discussion, the decisions made and, where appropriate, the reasons for them and the actions agreed. Its checklist and the Charity Commission’s add up to this:

• The organisation’s name, and the date, time and place of the meeting, or that it was held online.
• Who attended and in what role, who chaired, who took the minutes, and the apologies. That shows the meeting was quorate.
• Any conflict of interest declared, and what was done about it.
• For each item on the agenda: the key points of discussion, the decision, and why it was made.
• The exact wording of any resolution voted on, and, for a charity, who voted and how.
• Each action, with who is doing it and by when.
• The date of the next meeting.

How to write them

Write so that somebody who missed the meeting can follow it: the Institute’s test is that “someone who was not present at the meeting can follow the decisions that were made”. By convention minutes are in reported speech and the past tense, and a board’s decision is worded “It was resolved that”, a committee’s “It was agreed that”.

Summarise rather than transcribe. Name people only where it matters, such as whoever presented a report, owns an action or abstained; the Institute notes that naming people too often can discourage open debate. Mark the minutes as a draft until the meeting approves them.

Leave yourself time. The Institute reports experienced minute writers saying drafting takes “at least as long, often twice or three times as long” as the meeting itself.

A template to copy

Copy it into a document and fill in the brackets. Delete the lines a meeting does not need: a team meeting rarely has a quorum or declarations of interest, and a board always should.

[Organisation name]
Minutes of the [board / committee / team] meeting

Date: [day month year]    Time: [start] to [end]
Where: [room, or online on Teams, Zoom or Google Meet]
Chair: [name]    Minutes taken by: [name]
Present: [names and roles]
In attendance: [guests and advisers]
Apologies: [names]
The meeting [was / was not] quorate.

1. Welcome and apologies
   [Apologies were received from ...]

2. Declarations of interest
   [None were declared.]
   or: [Name] declared an interest in item [n], and took no part in it.

3. Minutes of the last meeting
   The minutes of the meeting held on [date] were approved [as a correct record / as corrected].

4. [Agenda item]
   [Who presented it, and the key points of discussion in two or three sentences.]
   It was resolved that [the decision, in the exact words agreed].
   Reasons: [why, and what the decision was based on].
   Action: [what is to be done]. Owner: [name]. By: [date].

5. [Agenda item]
   [...]

6. Any other business
   [...]

7. Date of the next meeting
   [Day month year, time, place]

Actions
[What] | [Owner] | [By when]

DRAFT, not yet approved.
Approved at the meeting held on [date].    Signed (chair): ____________

Approving, signing and correcting minutes

Send the draft round soon after the meeting, while people remember it, and approve it at the next meeting. That is near universal practice, and the Chartered Governance Institute says it is not a legal requirement. Under section 249 of the Companies Act 2006, board minutes authenticated by the chair of the meeting or of the next one are evidence of what happened, and the meeting is taken to have been properly held until the contrary is proved.

Some bodies must sign. In England, a maintained school’s clerk must make sure the governing body’s minutes are drawn up and signed by the chair at the next meeting. Where an organisation follows Robert’s Rules of Order, minutes corrected when they are approved are recorded as approved “as corrected”.

How long to keep minutes

A UK company keeps the minutes of its board meetings and its general meetings for at least ten years from the meeting, under sections 248 and 355 of the Companies Act 2006, for meetings held since 1 October 2007. Ten years is the least: the Chartered Governance Institute recommends keeping board minutes for the life of the organisation. Section 1135 allows them to be kept electronically, as long as they can be printed.

In England and Wales, the Charity Commission says charitable companies keep trustee minutes for at least 10 years, and trusts, unincorporated associations and CIOs for at least 6. In the United States, how long to keep minutes is set by state law and an organisation’s bylaws.

Minutes in the United States

Many American associations and nonprofits adopt Robert’s Rules of Order, whose answer is short: “Minutes are a record of what was done at a meeting, not a record of what was said.” Its rules apply only where an organisation has adopted them and no law or bylaw says otherwise. UK charity guidance asks for more, a summary of the discussion and the reasons for each decision, so follow the rules your organisation is under.

A nonprofit that files Form 990 is asked whether it documented every meeting of its board, and of each committee with authority to act for it, by the later of the next meeting or 60 days afterwards. The IRS says the record can be “approved minutes, email, or similar writings that explain the action taken, when it was taken, and who made the decision”. Federal advisory committees must keep detailed minutes by statute.

Using an AI note taker for the minutes

An AI note taker gives you a first draft, not the minutes. The minutes are what the meeting approves, so read the draft, correct it, and approve it as you would any other. Decide too what happens to the transcript once the minutes are agreed. The Chartered Governance Institute says the audio recording of board meetings “is not, generally, recommended”, and “Any such recording should be deleted once the minutes have been approved.”

Troopa is with you before, during and after a call on Microsoft Teams, Zoom or Google Meet. When a call it listened to ends, it writes notes by topic, the outcome in one line, and the next steps with who took each on. They stay a draft until you mark them final, and you can correct them, share the meeting or export the notes. Troopa keeps the transcript and the notes, not the audio, and an organisation sets how long transcripts are kept, 365 days unless it chooses otherwise. Telling the people on the call is up to you, and in many places the law requires it.

Questions

Sources

1. Companies Act 2006, section 248: minutes of directors’ meetings
2. Companies Act 2006, section 249: minutes as evidence
3. Companies Act 2006, section 355: records of resolutions and meetings
4. Companies Act 2006, section 1135: the form of company records
5. The Companies Act 2006 Commencement Order 2007, schedule 3: meetings from 1 October 2007
6. Charity Commission, Charity meetings (CC48)
7. The Chartered Governance Institute, Minute taking (guidance note, 2017)
8. The Chartered Governance Institute, What are minutes and why do we need them?
9. School Governance Regulations 2013 (England), regulation 15: minutes and papers
10. Robert’s Rules of Order, frequently asked questions
11. IRS, Instructions for Form 990 (2025), Part VI, line 8
12. Federal Advisory Committee Act, 5 U.S.C. § 1009(c): minutes

Read on 6 October 2026, by the people who make Troopa. Spotted something out of date? Tell us and we will correct it and say when.