How to take minutes for a parents' association meeting (with a template)
A short, copyable minutes template for parents' association committee meetings, plus what to record and what to leave out.
Updated 5 October 2026
Good minutes are short. They record what was decided and who's doing what by when, not everything that was said. They protect the committee too: if anyone later asks how money was spent, the minutes show it was agreed properly.
The template
Copy this into your notes and fill it in during the meeting.
[School name] Parents' Association: committee meeting
Date, time and place:
Present:
Apologies:
Chair:
Minutes taken by:
1. Minutes of the last meeting
Agreed as a correct record. Proposed by ..., seconded by ....
2. Matters arising
Updates on actions from last time.
3. Treasurer's update
Balance at [date]: €.... Money in since last meeting: €.... Payments since last meeting: €....
4. [Topic, for example the Christmas fair]
Summary in one or two lines.
Decided: ...
Action: [name] to [do what] by [date].
5. Correspondence
Letters or emails received and any reply agreed.
6. Any other business
Date of next meeting:
What to record
- Every decision, in plain words. For spending, record the amount and what it's for.
- Every action, with one named person and a date.
- Who proposed and seconded anything formal, such as approving accounts or changing the constitution.
What to leave out
- Who said what in a discussion. "The committee discussed options for the yard" is enough.
- Anything about individual children, teachers or families. Parents' associations deal with matters that affect the whole school, not individual cases.
- Personal opinions about people.
After the meeting
- Send the draft to the chair within a few days, while it's fresh.
- Circulate it to the committee, and approve it at the start of the next meeting.
- Keep approved minutes somewhere the next committee can find them.
primaryschool.ie gives committees a shared place for agendas and minutes, with actions that keep an owner and a due date. See how it works.
Sources
Rules and rates change. Check the official source before you rely on a detail, and tell us at [email protected] if something's out of date.