Help centre / Meetings & minutes / Minutes: draft, circulate, approve
Minutes: draft, circulate, approve
When you end a meeting, draft minutes are prepared automatically from the record. Edit them, then use Email trustees the draft to share them. At the next meeting, approve them as a true record. Approved minutes are locked and become the formal record.
Where does the draft come from?
The moment you end a meeting, we write a draft of the minutes for you from what was recorded: who attended, declarations of interest, each decision with its vote counts, and the actions agreed. Nothing is sent to anyone at this point, so you can tidy it up while the meeting is fresh.
The Minutes section shows exactly where you are with three stages: Draft → Shared → Approved.
How do I edit the draft?
Open the meeting and scroll to Minutes. Type your changes straight into the draft and select Save changes. If there's no draft yet (an older meeting, perhaps), use Draft now to write one from the record, or AI draft to have AI write it up in a natural style. You can always edit whatever it produces.
How do I share it with trustees?
Select Email trustees the draft. This actually sends the email and moves the minutes to Shared, so the record only ever says minutes were shared when they really were.
If you edit the minutes after sharing, they drop back to Draft and we prompt you to send them again. That way nobody is ever reviewing an out-of-date copy.
How does approval work?
Approving the minutes at the next meeting is the formal act that makes them the official record. This is standard good practice for charity boards. When the board has confirmed them, select Approve as true record, type your name to sign, and select Approve and sign.
Approved minutes are locked. They can't be edited, which is what makes them safe to rely on.
What if we spot an error after approval?
An admin can select Reopen for correction. This removes the approval and returns the minutes to a draft so the error can be fixed and the minutes re-approved. The whole thing is written to your history of changes, so a correction is always open and honest, never a quiet edit.
The governance behind this: our free guide on charitycontrol.org explains the why in plain English.