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Taking Effective Business Meeting Minutes

Each time we have business meetings, it is to make decisions. A decision should always be written down.

Have you ever made decisions on a Project with a customer stakeholder and suddenly he left the Project and and along came another with a different view?  Yes, these things happen. If you don’t take control of each agreement you have hammered out, probably you will have to start your project again!!

Before the Meeting

A important point is that meetings don’t start when they are scheduled, they start when they are called.

First of all, when we call for a meeting, we need to know what we want to carry out with this meeting. Then, we need to prepare an agenda and probably aditional information is needed to make a decision about these points.


We recommend writing your meeting minute directly from the laptop. 


Prepare before your template with the subject of the meeting, the date, the people expected to come, the distribuition list, etc. and what is more important the agenda points. This way, you will only need to fill in the gaps.  

During the Meeting

This is not about writing the dialog of a film, this is only about treating each of the points scheduled, writing the general exposure (subject) and the final conclusion (agreement). 

Try to write it in a very formal way. Don’t write things that can feel bad or embarrasing to others (some comments about people not present, etc.).


It is better not to write personal names, it is better to use acronyms (it is more aseptic and neutral). Don’t use the terms “Customer” and “Provider”, it is better to mention the companies brand names.

After the Meeting

If you did it as I have explained, you probably will only need a general reading of your business meeting minute and it will be ready to distribute. 

Before sending it, consider strategic view of your words (not being responsible about thing that don’t belong to you) and be sure the scheduled points of the agenda were covered and solved.


If you have any doub about any point, ask someone else present, but don’t make up anything. It is better to clarify this point before distributing your meeting minute.


What is your advice about the best way to take meeting minutes?

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