Meeting Minutes Format (2026): Template With Action Items and a Sample

A meeting minutes format has six parts in this order: a header (meeting name, date, time, place and who took the minutes), attendees, agenda, a short discussion summary, decisions, and action items, each with one owner and a due date. Copy the template below, see it filled in with a real sample, and let Scribbl draft the minutes with action items after each Google Meet, Zoom or Microsoft Teams meeting, so you check a draft instead of typing one.

Good minutes are not a transcript and not your scratch notes. They are a short shared record built around one question: who owns what next. Five of the six parts are a record. The action items are the part that decides whether the meeting produced anything, so this format gives them their own section and three required fields.

The meeting minutes format at a glance

Every set of minutes answers the same questions in the same order. This table is the whole format, with what goes in each part and how much of it you need.

Meeting minutes template with action items (copy this)

Paste this into your notes before the meeting starts, so you only fill in fields while you listen. Replace anything in [square brackets].

# Meeting minutes: [Specific meeting name, not just "sync"]

Date: [Day, Mon DD, YYYY]      Time: [Start] to [End] [Time zone]
Location / link: [Google Meet / Zoom / Teams / room]
Minutes taken by: [One named person]

## Attendees
Present: [Names]
Absent: [Name (reason)]

## Agenda
1. [Topic one]
2. [Topic two]
3. [Topic three]

## Discussion
- [Topic one]: [One or two lines that explain a decision below.]
- [Topic two]: [One or two lines.]

## Decisions
- [What was chosen, stated as final, with what changed.]
- [Decision.]

## Action items
| # | Action item (start with a verb) | Owner  | Due date     | Status      |
|---|---------------------------------|--------|--------------|-------------|
| 1 | [Verb] [the thing]              | [Name] | [Day Mon DD] | Not started |
| 2 | [Verb] [the thing]              | [Name] | [Day Mon DD] | Not started |

## Next meeting
[Day, Mon DD, YYYY, time, place]   (leave out for one-off meetings)

Decisions and action items sit at the bottom on purpose: that is where readers scroll to find out what they owe. Everything above them is context.

Meeting minutes sample (filled in)

Here is the same format filled in for a 45-minute project sync on Google Meet. It is the meeting shown in the Scribbl notes page at the top of this post. Read it once: you could understand the meeting in 20 seconds without having been there, which is the bar.

# Meeting minutes: Q3 launch sync

Date: Mon, Jun 15, 2026      Time: 2:00 to 2:45 PM ET
Location / link: Google Meet
Minutes taken by: Priya

## Attendees
Present: Sarah, Marcus, Priya
Absent: Dana (PTO)

## Agenda
1. Q3 pricing review
2. Security review timeline
3. Onboarding email sequence

## Discussion
- Pricing: agreed annual billing is the default; monthly stays as an option.
- Security: IT needs two review slots before launch, so the target slips one week.
- Onboarding: copy is blocked on legal sign-off.

## Decisions
- Annual billing becomes the default plan on the pricing page.
- Launch date moves to Jul 6 to fit the security review.

## Action items
| # | Action item                         | Owner  | Due date   | Status      |
|---|-------------------------------------|--------|------------|-------------|
| 1 | Send revised pricing deck to Acme   | Sarah  | Fri Jun 19 | In progress |
| 2 | Schedule security review with IT    | Marcus | Wed Jun 17 | Not started |
| 3 | Draft Q3 onboarding email sequence  | Priya  | Mon Jun 22 | Blocked     |

## Next meeting
Mon, Jun 22, 2026, 2:00 PM ET, Google Meet

What makes each part work:

• Header. "Q3 launch sync" still means something in six weeks; "Weekly sync" does not. The time zone turns "2:00" into a fact. One named person takes the minutes, so later questions have an address.
• Attendees. The absent line matters. If Dana owns a follow-up and was on PTO, someone has to brief her, and the minutes are where that gets noticed.
• Discussion. Each line explains a decision below it. If a line explains nothing and sets up no action, cut it.
• Decisions. Each one reads as settled ("Launch date moves to Jul 6"), not as talk ("we discussed maybe moving the launch"), and says what changed.
• Action items. One person, one verb, one date per line. Status lets you carry open items to the next meeting without rewriting them.

For a longer worked example with notes on tone, see our meeting minutes example. For the steps of writing minutes from scratch, see how to write meeting minutes.

The action items section is the one that matters

Every section above the action items is a record. The action items are a list of promises. They are the only part of the minutes that creates work for someone, and the part most people get wrong by being vague.

Three different things get logged as if they were tasks inside any meeting, and only one belongs in the action items.

Goes in agenda, discussion or decisions

• Topic: "Discuss Q3 pricing." That belongs in the agenda.
• Decision: "We are going with annual billing." Record it under Decisions; no one owns it as a task.
• Group task: "Marketing will handle the launch." No single owner means no one is accountable.
• Vague date: "Send it over soon." Not a deadline.

Goes in action items

• Verb first: "Send the revised pricing deck to Acme."
• One owner: "Sarah" (she can hand it off, but she answers for it).
• Real date: "by Fri Jun 19."
• Put together: "Sarah sends the revised pricing deck to Acme by Fri Jun 19."

The owner rule has a history. George T. Doran introduced SMART goals in the November 1981 issue of Management Review, in an article titled "There's a S.M.A.R.T. way to write management's goals and objectives." In Doran's version the A stood for Assignable (say who will do it) and the R for Realistic. The popular version later turned A into "Achievable," which quietly dropped the question of who owns the task. That missing owner is the most common reason action items die in minutes.

1981

Year Doran published SMART

Assignable

What Doran's original "A" meant

3

Required parts of an action item: task, owner, date

For the action items list on its own (columns, statuses, carrying items between meetings), see our meeting action items template.

Have Scribbl draft the minutes with action items after each meeting

You don't have to type minutes while you are also trying to take part in the meeting. Scribbl records the call and, when it ends, writes the minutes for you with its meeting minutes template: attendees, decisions, discussion, and each action item with an owner and a due date, like the notes page at the top of this post. Nothing joins the call. It works on Google Meet with the Chrome extension, and on Zoom and Microsoft Teams with Scribbl Desktop for Mac (Apple silicon) and Windows, including meetings other companies host.

After each meeting you get the video recording, a transcript with speaker names, AI meeting notes and action items, so you can check any line of the minutes against what was actually said. Let everyone in the meeting know you're recording.

1. 1

   Record the meeting with Scribbl

   Start Scribbl on Google Meet, Zoom or Teams and tell everyone you're recording. Nothing joins the call, so you stay in the conversation instead of typing.

2. 2

   Get the minutes when the call ends

   Pick the Meeting minutes template. Scribbl writes the attendees, decisions, discussion and action items, each with an owner and a due date.

3. 3

   Check the action items

   Make sure every item has one owner and a real date, move any decision that slipped in up to Decisions, and cut anything no one will do. The transcript and video are right there if a line needs checking.

4. 4

   Send it the same day

   Automations can draft the follow-up email with the minutes (copy it or open it in Gmail; it never sends by itself), post them to Slack or Microsoft Teams, or save them to Notion, Google Drive or Confluence.

5. 5

   Put the action items where work happens

   Automations can open an Asana, Monday, Linear or Jira ticket for each task, log a note in HubSpot or Pipedrive, or add a row to a Google Sheet. They ask before they change anything by default.

6. 6

   Start the next meeting on open items

   Smart Collections sort meetings by themselves, so last week's sync and its action items are one click away when the next one starts.

On Pro you can also connect Scribbl to ChatGPT or Claude and ask about past meetings, for example "what did Marcus commit to in the last three launch syncs?" The free plan includes Google Meet, Zoom and Microsoft Teams, with 10 meetings a month. Pro is $13 per user per month billed annually, or $20 monthly. See pricing.

Recordings are private by default, and Scribbl doesn't use your meetings to train AI for anyone other than you.

What is the best software to write meeting minutes?

The best software to write meeting minutes in 2026 is an AI note taker that drafts them for you. Scribbl is the pick: its meeting minutes template writes the attendees, decisions and each action item with its owner, on Google Meet, Zoom and Microsoft Teams, and no bot joins the call. Each platform's own tool covers only that platform, and only when the organizer's plan includes it.

Two things decide it. First, where your meetings happen: each built-in tool covers one platform, and the meeting's organizer or host controls it, so as a guest in another company's meeting you usually can't start it. Second, who fixes the action items: every tool here gives you a draft, and the check in the steps above turns it into minutes worth sending. For a longer comparison, see best software for meeting minutes.

Formal meeting minutes format (Robert's Rules)

Working minutes for a team sync can stay light. Formal minutes for a board, nonprofit, HOA or public body are the official record, and if the group has adopted Robert's Rules of Order, the format is not a style choice. The rule that has held since the first edition in February 1876: minutes are a record of what was done at a meeting, not what was said. The current edition is Robert's Rules of Order Newly Revised, 12th edition (2020).

In practice that means: the kind of meeting and the name of the body; the date, time and place; who chaired and who took the minutes; whether a quorum was present; whether the last minutes were approved; each main motion in its exact wording, with the name of the member who made it; and the result of the vote. The seconder's name is left out unless the assembly orders it, and the debate is not summarized.

MINUTES
[Organization name]: [Regular / Special] meeting of the [Board]

Date: [YYYY-MM-DD]   Called to order: [7:02 PM] by [Chair name]
Place: [Location / Google Meet / Zoom]
Present: [Names]   Absent: [Names]   Quorum: [Present / Not present]
Secretary: [Name]

1. Call to order
   The meeting was called to order at [7:02 PM] by [Chair].

2. Approval of prior minutes
   The minutes of [prior date] were approved [as read / as corrected].

3. Reports
   - [Treasurer's report]: [one-line summary]. Filed for audit.

4. Motions
   MOTION ([Member name]): "[Exact wording of the motion.]"
   Vote: [In favor 6, Opposed 1, Abstained 1]. CARRIED.

5. Action items
   - [Treasurer]: [file the Q2 report with the auditor] by [date]
   - [Chair]: [schedule the annual audit] by [date]

6. Adjournment
   The meeting was adjourned at [8:14 PM].

Respectfully submitted,
[Name], Secretary
[Approved on (date)]

Even a board meeting produces tasks, so formal minutes still end with action items, and each still needs one owner and a date. Scribbl's transcript gives the secretary the exact motion wording and vote to copy in. For approval, signatures and keeping the minutes book, see our guide to board meeting minutes.

Quick format for standups and short syncs

For a 15-minute standup, the full format is too much. Keep only what changed and what is owned. It pastes cleanly into Slack or a Teams chat.

[Meeting] | [YYYY-MM-DD] | Present: [names]

Decisions:
- [Ship the v2 onboarding flow Thursday]

Action items:
- [Sarah]: [send revised pricing deck to Acme] by [Fri Jun 19]
- [Marcus]: [schedule security review] by [Wed Jun 17]

Blocked:
- [Priya] waiting on [legal copy] to start the Q3 sequence

The "Blocked" line brings up a dependency before it becomes next week's excuse. If a meeting produces no decision and no action item, it doesn't need minutes at all.

Adapt the format by meeting type

The parts stay the same. What changes is how much weight each part carries and where the action items go.

• Internal team sync. Keep discussion light and let the action items carry the load. Send them to your task tool. See how to take meeting notes.
• Client or sales call. Tie each action item to the deal and log it in your CRM, so the rep and the account owner both see it. See the client meeting notes template and Scribbl for sales.
• Project kickoff or status. Expand the decisions, tie action items to milestones, and flag dependencies. The agenda for a project kick-off meeting pairs well with this format.
• Strategy session or design review. When the reasoning is what people will need later, write the discussion as short paragraphs under each topic, then still end with the action items.
• Board or formal meeting. Use the Robert's Rules format above: motions and votes instead of decisions, and action items at the end.

Mistakes that ruin minutes in any format

For the assignment step, how to delegate tasks effectively is worth a read: an owner who never agreed to the work will still drop it. For the short message you send after the meeting, see our meeting recap and summary guide. For a longer email, see follow-up emails after a meeting.

FAQ

What is the correct format for meeting minutes?

Six parts in this order: a header (meeting name, date, time, place and who took the minutes), attendees present and absent, the agenda, a short discussion summary, the decisions, and the action items, each with one owner and a due date. Add the next meeting date for recurring meetings. Formal minutes for a board or nonprofit swap the decisions for motions and votes.

What is the best software to write meeting minutes?

An AI note taker that drafts the minutes from the meeting itself, and Scribbl is the pick: its meeting minutes template writes the attendees, the decisions and each action item with its owner, on Google Meet, Zoom and Microsoft Teams, including other companies' meetings, and no bot joins the call. The free plan includes Google Meet, Zoom and Microsoft Teams, with 10 meetings a month. The platforms' own tools, Gemini's "Take notes for me" in Google Meet, Copilot in Teams (with a Microsoft 365 Copilot license) and Zoom AI Companion, each work on one platform and depend on the organizer's plan. Whichever you use, check the action items before you send the minutes.

How do you write action items in meeting minutes?

Put them in their own section at the end, one line each, with three things: a task that starts with a verb, exactly one named owner, and a real due date. "Sarah sends the revised pricing deck to Acme by Fri Jun 19" is an action item. "Marketing will look into pricing" is not, because it has no single owner and no date.

What is the difference between meeting minutes and a meeting recap?

Minutes are the structured record of the meeting kept on file: header, attendees, agenda, discussion, decisions and action items. A recap is the short message you send afterward, often just the decisions and action items pasted into an email or chat. The action items are the part both share.

How long should meeting minutes be?

About half a page for a 30 to 60 minute meeting. The length comes from the number of decisions and action items, not the length of the discussion. If your minutes run to several pages, you are recording what was said instead of what was done. Keep the discussion to two lines per topic.

Do I have to use Robert's Rules format?

Only if your organization has adopted Robert's Rules, which boards, nonprofits, HOAs and public bodies often do in their bylaws. Then the minutes record each main motion in its exact wording, who made it, and the result of the vote, not the debate. For a normal team meeting, the standard format on this page is the right one.

Can AI write meeting minutes?

It can write the first draft. Scribbl records the meeting and writes the attendees, decisions and action items with owners and due dates, so your job is to check the draft, not type it. Check that every action item has one owner and a real date, and for formal minutes add the exact motion wording and vote counts before the group approves them.

Sources

Checked on October 12, 2026, unless a date is given.

• Google Meet Help: Take notes for me in Google Meet (plans, where the notes are saved, who can start it)
• Microsoft Support: Welcome to Copilot in Microsoft Teams and Facilitator in Microsoft Teams meetings (checked October 6, 2026)
• Zoom: pricing and Using Meeting Summary with AI Companion (checked October 6, 2026)
• Wikipedia: SMART criteria (Doran, Management Review, November 1981) and Robert's Rules of Order (first edition February 1876; 12th edition 2020)
• Robert's Rules Association: Frequently asked questions ("Minutes are a record of what was done at a meeting, not a record of what was said")
• Michigan State University Extension: No need to record that "second" (Robert's Rules 48:4 on the maker and seconder of a motion)
• Scribbl: pricing, Scribbl Desktop