Committee meeting minutes: format, example and template
How committee minutes differ from board minutes, how to record a recommendation the board can act on, a worked example and a free template.
What are committee meeting minutes?
Committee meeting minutes are the record of a committee's meeting. They have two sets of readers: the committee itself, and the body that set it up, usually a board. The board hands the committee a job, such as the finances or health and safety, and the minutes are how it sees the job being done.
Most committees work to written terms of reference, called a charter in many American organisations. These say who sits on the committee and how many members make a quorum. Most importantly, they say what the committee can decide for itself and what it has to recommend to the board, and everything in the minutes follows from that.
Standing committees, such as finance or audit, meet on a fixed cycle for years. A working group set up for one task may meet three times and close. Both keep minutes. The working group's can be much shorter, but they still end with what it decided and what it is handing back.
How are committee minutes different from board minutes?
They record two kinds of outcome. A board decides. A committee decides some things under authority the board delegated to it, and recommends the rest, and a recommendation has no effect until the board approves it. The minutes say which is which every time: "resolved" for a decision the committee was allowed to take, "recommended to the board" for one it wasn't.
They are read by people who weren't there. Most of the board wasn't in the committee's meeting, so the minutes give a line of reason for each recommendation. Without it, the board has to hold the committee's discussion again.
They often reach the board as a draft. Boards and their committees meet on different cycles, so the board usually sees a committee's minutes before the committee has met again to approve them. The copy in the board papers is marked unapproved, and the committee approves its own minutes at its next meeting.
Small committees need fewer formalities. Under Robert's Rules, motions in a committee of about a dozen members or fewer don't need a seconder, so many committee minutes record only who proposed a motion. Check the terms of reference first, because some organisations ask for a seconder anyway.
Some people at the table aren't members. The finance officer at a finance committee, or the auditor at an audit committee, is listed as in attendance. They don't count towards the quorum, and they don't vote.
The board's own record works differently again, and our guide to board meeting minutes covers it.
What should committee meeting minutes include?
The same fields as any formal minutes, plus a few that come from the committee's place below the board:
- The committee's name, and the date, time and place
- Who chaired, and who took the minutes
- Members present, apologies, and anyone in attendance who is not a member
- Whether the meeting was quorate, against the number in the terms of reference
- Declarations of interest, recorded before the item they affect, with whether the member left the room
- Approval of the previous minutes, and updates on past actions
- Each item, ending in what came of it: noted, decided or recommended
- The recommendations again, gathered under one heading
- Actions, each with an owner and a date
- Which board meeting the minutes, or the chair's report, will go to
- The date of the next meeting
The formal conventions are the ones every board and committee shares, and our guide to writing meeting minutes sets them out, from the past tense to fixed verbs such as noted and resolved.
How do you write a committee's recommendations?
Name who decides. "Recommended to the board", or to the trustees or the council, not just "recommended". The board's secretary should be able to lift the line straight onto the next board agenda.
Say exactly what the board is asked to approve. The figure or the date, not the topic. "Recommended to the board: approve the 2027 budget of £1.21m, including a 3% pay award from April" can go straight into a board resolution. "The committee supported the budget" can't.
Give the reason in one line. The board will ask why, and one line answers before it does: "because the forecast deficit is covered by reserves."
Recommend even when the committee is unanimous. If the terms of reference say the committee can only recommend, the minute is a recommendation, however strongly everyone agreed. A unanimous committee is still not the board.
Gather them under one heading. Listing every recommendation at the end gives the chair a ready list for the report to the board, and gives the board one place to find what it is being asked.
1. The committee approved the budget.
we can’t, our terms say recommendRecommended to the board: approve the 2027 budget of £1.21m, with the 3% pay award2. Reserves policy agreed.agreed by whom?
Recommended to the board: adopt the reserves policy, 3–6 months’ costs4. Resolved, under delegated authority, to write off £1,240 of debts over twelve months old.
ours to decide — under the £5k limitmove both under “Recommendations to the board” for the 26th
Some before-and-after examples:
- Unclear: The committee was happy with the reserves policy. Written as a recommendation: Recommended to the board: adopt the reserves policy as circulated, holding three to six months' running costs.
- Unclear: The committee agreed to change auditors. Written as a recommendation: Recommended to the board: appoint the firm ranked first in the tender as auditors from the 2027 accounts.
- Unclear: Old debts were written off. Written as a decision: Resolved, under the committee's delegated authority (up to £5,000), to write off £1,240 of debts more than twelve months old.
The last one is a decision rather than a recommendation because the board gave the committee that power, and the minute names the limit it falls under.
Committee meeting minutes example
A finance committee's minutes, filled into the template below. Three items end in recommendations to the board, and one in a decision the committee could take itself.
Thursday 12 November 2026, 18:00 to 19:10
Video call · Chair: HB · Minutes by: TL, finance officer
Members: HB, DK, MW, RS · Apologies: AF · In attendance: TL · Quorum: met (three members needed)
MW declared an interest in item 3, as her employer quoted in the audit tender, and left the meeting for that item
- The minutes of 10 September were approved as an accurate record
- Reserves policy: draft circulated to members on 2 October, as agreed
- 1. Draft 2027 budget: considered, including a 3% pay award. See recommendations.
- 2. Reserves policy: considered as circulated. See recommendations.
- 3. Audit tender: the three firms that quoted were ranked, with MW absent. See recommendations.
- 4. Old debts: resolved, under delegated authority (up to £5,000), to write off £1,240 of debts over twelve months olddecision
- 5. Management accounts to 31 October: income £412,000 against a budget of £398,000, and a forecast deficit of £18,000 for the year. Noted.number
- Approve the 2027 budget of £1.21m, including a 3% pay award from April, because the forecast deficit is covered by reserves
- Adopt the reserves policy, holding three to six months' running costs, so that a late grant payment can be covered
- Appoint the firm ranked first in the tender as auditors from the 2027 accounts, on cost and experience of the sector
- TL — update the budget paper for the board pack — by 19 Novemberowner + date
- DK — send the reserves policy to all trustees — by 19 Novemberowner + date
- HB — present the recommendations at the board meeting — on 26 Novemberowner + date
These minutes go to the board on 26 November, marked unapproved, with HB's summary
Thursday 11 February 2027, 18:00
The board can act on each recommendation without asking what was meant, and nobody reading the minutes will think the budget is already approved. MW's declaration sits before the item it affects, along with the fact that she left the room.
Committee meeting minutes template
The template keeps the order of the example, with recommendations under their own heading, apart from decisions. Download the Word file, free and with no sign-up, or copy it as text into your own document, and delete any heading you don't use.
[date], [start and finish time]
[venue or video link] · Chair: [name] · Minutes by: [name]
Members: [names] · Apologies: [names] · In attendance: [staff or advisers who are not members] · Quorum: [met / not met] ([number] needed)
[name] declared an interest in item [n] and [left for that item / stayed but did not vote], or "None declared"
The minutes of [date] were approved as an accurate record.
[item]: [update against a previous action]
[n]. [Item]: [what was considered, with any figure quoted]. Noted.
[n]. [Item]: resolved, under delegated authority ([the limit or power it falls under]), to [decision]
Recommended to the [board]: [what, with the figure or date], because [one-line reason]
[owner] — [task] — by [date]
These minutes go to the [board] on [date], marked [unapproved / approved]
[date, time]
[chair's signature] · [date approved by the committee]
Bring it to Sorinai and it fills in each heading as the meeting reaches it, in your own Word file. Every answer keeps the transcript quote it came from, so a figure or the wording of a recommendation can be checked before the minutes go to the board. See how template filling works. A committee's agenda runs in the same order, and our guide to the committee meeting agenda has an example.
Committee meeting minutes FAQ
Who takes the minutes at a committee meeting?
Usually the committee's secretary or clerk, who is often a member of staff in attendance rather than a committee member, which leaves the members free to take part. In a small volunteer committee one of the members takes them, and the job is often rotated.
Who approves committee minutes?
The committee, at its next meeting. The board receives them, often as a draft because it meets first, but it doesn't approve another body's minutes. If the board disagrees with something in them, it records that in its own minutes.
Do committee minutes go to the board?
In most organisations, yes: either the minutes themselves or a short report from the committee chair, at the next board meeting. The terms of reference usually say which. A confidential item, such as one person's pay, goes in a separate minute with restricted circulation.
Are committee meeting minutes confidential?
It depends on the body. Committees of public bodies, such as a council's, usually have to make their minutes public, apart from items the law lets them hold back. A company's or a charity's committee minutes are internal records that the board can see and the public can't. Putting a confidential item in its own minute lets the rest be shared.