If you're someone who attends or leads many meetings, you know firsthand how overwhelming it can be to remember every detail discussed during the session. This is where meeting summaries come in handy. By creating a concise recap of the meeting, you can capture important details and actions decided upon by the team. Not only does a meeting summary serve as a reminder to those who were present, but it's also a convenient way to inform those who were unable to attend.

In this article, we'll discuss how you can create a meeting summary that is both effective and of great value. We'll delve into the difference between meeting summaries and meeting minutes and provide you with tips for formatting and structuring your summary based on real-life meeting notes examples. By learning how to create a well-crafted meeting summary, you can improve communication and productivity within your team. And at the end we even have a little surprise for you how you never have to take meeting notes again. So, let's get started!

What is a meeting summary?

A meeting summary can be considered as an informal version of so-called meeting minutes or notes. It is a written document that recaps the essential discussions, decisions, and action items from a meeting. It also serves as a reference document for team members to track project progress and remind them of their responsibilities. 

The summary is typically sent as an email after the meeting to all participants, including those who were unable to attend. Unlike meeting minutes, a meeting summary is informal and often includes due dates, project deadlines, and updates. It's designed to be concise and easy to understand, providing team members with a clear and brief overview of what was discussed. 

But what's actually the difference between meeting minutes and a meeting summary? 

What are meeting minutes?

Meeting minutes are a comprehensive and formal record of discussions and decisions made during a meeting. They are an official and detailed documentation that serves as a legal record of a meeting's proceedings and outcomes. Meeting minutes typically include the date, time, and location of the meeting, a list of participants present and absent, a statement of the meeting's objectives, a detailed account of the discussion points, decisions made, actions agreed upon, including who is responsible for each action, and deadlines for action items. They may also record the approval of the previous meeting's minutes.

Meeting minutes vs meeting summary

But what are the key differences between these two formats? In the image above you can see visualisation of the main differences.

In essence meeting minutes serve as an official record of a meeting and contain a request for approval of the previous meeting's minutes, as well as a list of all attendees and absentees, the meeting agenda, action items, decisions, schedules and due dates. They're generally more detailed and formal than a meeting summary and can include an official meeting agenda. On the other hand, a meeting summary is a brief and concise document that serves as a reminder of what occurred during the meeting. While it's less formal than meeting minutes, it should still include important information such as decisions and action items. A meeting summary is primarily for your own benefit and recollection of what was discussed during the meeting, so it's essential to use your own approach and style that is the most effective for you. If you don't have the time to write a meeting summary or meeting minutes you can also ask jamie to write it for you.

How to create minutes or summaries using jamie

Here is a full guide on how to summarize using jamie.

Once you have downloaded jamie, you can get started right away. Simply head to your next meeting and start jamie to generate your first meeting notes.

Step 1: Start jamie

You can start jamie by clicking on the "Start meeting" button located at the top left of your dashboard sidebar.

Step 2: Stop jamie

Once your meeting is over, you can stop jamie by clicking on the "Stop meeting" button located at the top right side of your recording window.

This will automatically start the generation process and your meeting notes will be available in approximately 5-10 minutes, depending on the length of your meeting.

Step 3: Identify Speakers

Once your meeting note has been generated by jamie, you will first be asked to identify the speakers who were present in the meeting.

For this, simply listen to each audio snippet and enter the name in the text field.

Step 4: Review your Meeting Notes

That's it 🎉

Extra tip: If you want to manually highlight important moments of the meeting, you can use the jamie shortcut. Your highlight will then be included at the top of your summary.

Extra Extra tip: You can even create your own personal templates to customise your summary to your personal use case.

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How to write a meeting summary (manually)

Now that we know the difference between a meeting summary and meeting minutes, let's take a look at how a meeting summary is created. 

📚 Prepare relevant materials before the next meeting

Before you head off to your next meeting, take some time to gather any relevant materials that might come in handy. This could include past meeting summaries or any documents that were referenced during previous discussions. Reviewing these can help you to refresh your memory on what was previously discussed. By taking a little bit of time to prepare ahead of time, you'll be setting yourself up for a more successful and productive meeting. If you want to be more efficient, you can follow a preparation checklist

📝 Take detailed notes during the meeting

Taking detailed meeting notes is crucial for remembering important information. If you have the luxury of having someone designated to take notes, like jamie, that's great! But if not, try rotating the responsibility among team members. If you are taking notes, focus on the agenda items and highlight any key decisions made. Be sure to include who is assigned to what task and any important details discussed. This way, you can keep a clear and concise record of the meeting.

🎙️ Record the meeting

It might also be helpful to record or transcribe your meetings. This will give you the opportunity to go back and review to make sure all important information is captured. However, reviewing meeting recordings or transcripts is a quite time-consuming task and therefore, I recommend making sure to capture everything already in the meeting itself. 

✏️ Highlight decisions made and tasks assigned

In order to effectively follow up on the decisions made during a meeting, it's important to take note of the key decisions and any action items that come up. By assigning tasks to specific individuals and setting clear deadlines, you can ensure that progress is made towards meeting your goals.

📅 Include a reminder of the next meeting date 

I usually like to include a note about the date and time of the next meeting in my summary - it'll help everyone keep track of upcoming deadlines and give them a chance to prepare for the next discussion. Plus, if you haven't sent out an invite yet, this is the perfect opportunity to make sure everyone has it on their calendar.

🖇️ Attach supporting documents

Don't forget to attach any supporting documents that can provide more clarity to the topics discussed in the meeting. These can be emails, client communications, contracts, project instructions, or even interesting articles or blogs related to the discussion. Including these documents can make it easier for attendees to recall details and catch up on important information.

📂 Organise and proofread your summary

One of the last steps, but probably the most important one, is to give your meeting summary a last proofread. Make your meeting summary easier to understand (you can use subheadings and highlight the key action items to make it more visual). If you have a specific template, stick to it. Also take a moment to review it for spelling and grammatical errors. Address any ambiguities.

📩 Share your meeting summary with all participants

Before sending it out to all participants, I always like to let a second person read over it once and check if everything is correct. After that, you can email it to all the attendees, absentees, and anyone else who might need the information.

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How to write meeting meeting minutes (manually)

📚 Review Agenda and Previous Minutes for Context

Prior to the meeting, thoroughly review the agenda and minutes from previous meetings to understand pending issues and how they relate to the upcoming discussion. This step is crucial for anticipating the flow of the meeting and ensuring continuity in documentation.

📝 Capture Every Detail During the Meeting

In contrast to summarizing, the creation of minutes demands meticulous attention to detail. Document not only the decisions and action items but also the context of discussions, differing viewpoints, and the rationale behind decisions. This comprehensive approach ensures that the minutes serve as a complete historical record.

🎙️ Use Recordings as a Backup (With Consent)

Although both summaries and minutes can benefit from recordings, for minutes, it's particularly useful as a backup to verify complex discussions or specific language used. Ensure you have consent to record and use the recordings primarily for clarifying details post-meeting. Or you let jamie write your mintutes for you :)

✏️ Delineate Decisions, Actions, and Assignments

Clearly articulate all decisions made, actions to be taken, deadlines, and individuals responsible. This step is similar in both summaries and minutes but requires a higher degree of formality and precision in minutes.

📅 Document Next Meeting's Logistics

Detailing the next meeting’s date, time, and location is standard. In minutes, this information might be part of formal motions or decisions taken during the meeting.

🖇️ Formally Reference All Documents and Reports

Precisely list and attach (or indicate the location of) all documents, reports, and other materials referenced during the meeting. This ensures that the minutes serve as a thorough record that stakeholders can refer to when needed.

📂 Formalize, Organize, and Edit for Clarity

Organize the minutes using a structured format that adheres to any specific organizational or legal requirements. This might include using formal language, following a template, and ensuring the document is logically structured and easy to navigate.

📩 Distribute Draft for Review, Then Finalize

Share the draft minutes with attendees or a review committee for accuracy checks before final approval. This might involve a formal review process, with the minutes being approved as a record in the next meeting, highlighting a procedural step unique to minutes.

Meeting Summary Examples and Templates

Alternative 1: General Meeting Summary

Alternative 2: Weekly Sales Team Debrief

Alternative 3: Project X Planning Session

Meeting Mintues Examples and Templates

Alternative 1: Informal Team Meeting Minutes

Alternative 2: Sales Team Meeting Minutes

Alternative 3: Project Kick-off Meeting Minutes

If you want some more inspiration here are 10 examples for meeting notes

I hope this article gave you a good understanding of how a meeting summary or meeting minutes should look like and what the most important items are to include in a meeting summary. 

If you do not have the time to write meeting summaries during meetings, feel free to try out jamie. jamie is a personal AI meeting assistant that takes notes for you. It works across all meeting platforms and even offline. With jamie there is no need to read through long transcripts or the act of manual note taking during calls.

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