How to Write Construction Meeting Minutes (With Example)

By Wyatt Cooper · Published October 22, 2026 · 7 min read

Key takeaways

Construction meeting minutes record what was decided and who owes what by when, not a transcript of who said what.
Number every item by the meeting it was first raised in, so item 11.3 is still 11.3 three meetings later and its age is obvious.
Every open item needs one responsible party and a date; an item without both isn't an action item.
Send the minutes within a day, ask for corrections by a stated deadline, and accept them at the start of the next meeting.

To write construction meeting minutes, start with the project, meeting number, date, place and who attended. Then record old business and new business as numbered items, each with what was discussed, what was decided, who is responsible and the due date. Mark items closed or carried, attach the current logs and look-ahead, and send the minutes within a day with a deadline for corrections.

What minutes are for

Minutes are the job's record of decisions and promises. The City of Los Angeles Bureau of Engineering's minutes procedure says they are prepared "to provide a record of items discussed and decisions made" and to "track and follow-up on the tasks and responsibilities assigned at the meetings", and that they should "report the facts of the meeting without bias".

That last part matters because minutes get read later by people who weren't there: a new project manager, the owner's lender, a scheduler working out a delay. Connecticut's construction administration manual lists meeting minutes among the records used to assess a claim. Write them as if someone will.

This post is about the record. For running the meeting itself, see how to run an OAC meeting.

The parts of a good set of minutes

The parts of construction meeting minutes: what to write, and the usual mistake
Part	What to write	Common mistake
Header	Project, meeting type and number, date, time, place, who wrote them	No meeting number, so nobody can cite them
Attendance	Each person, company and role, marked present or absent	Listing the invitees as if they all came
Review of last minutes	Corrections received and that the minutes were accepted	Silently editing last week's minutes
Old business	Each carried item by its original number, with status: closed, or still open with a new date	Dropping items nobody mentioned
New business	New items numbered from this meeting (14.1, 14.2), each with the decision, owner and date	Paragraphs of discussion and no decision
Attachments	The look-ahead and the current RFI, submittal and change order logs	"See logs" with nothing attached
Next meeting and corrections	The next date, and a deadline for corrections	No correction window, so disputes surface months later

Los Angeles asks for each of these. Its minutes include a statement that corrections are due "within 5 calendar days of receipt of minutes", and the weekly meeting's minutes carry the contractor's three-week schedule and the updated submittal, RFI and change order logs as attachments. Connecticut asks for "an action list detailing items requiring follow-up, the parties responsible, the schedule by when action is expected".

A filled-in example: minutes of OAC meeting #14

Here are the minutes from the agenda in the OAC meeting post, on the same made-up job. Notice that every line ends with a name and a date, or with "Closed".

Minutes — OAC Meeting #14 — Alder Street Medical Office — April 7, 10:00 AM, site trailer

Present: Owner's rep (Alder Health); project architect (Fern Studio); MEP engineer, for item 14.1; GC project manager (writer) and superintendent
Absent: Structural engineer (no items this week)
Minutes of #13: No corrections received. Accepted.
11.3 IT room equipment list (old): Owner has the list from its IT vendor; sends it April 9. Owner's rep, due April 9. Open.
13.2 Door hardware schedule (old): Issued April 6 as ASI 004. Closed.
14.1 RFI 019 roof drain sizing (new): MEP engineer will answer by April 9; roof drains are on the path to the April 20 roof deck. MEP engineer, due April 9.
14.2 Storefront shop drawings (new): Architect will return reviewed drawings by April 14 to hold the 6-week lead time. Architect, due April 14.
14.3 PCO 007 added floor drains, $4,860 (new): Owner approves; GC to issue the change order for signature. GC PM, due April 9.
14.4 Card readers at two doors (new): Owner asked for a price. GC PM, due April 14.
Attachments: Three-week look-ahead dated April 6; RFI, submittal and change order logs as of April 6
Next meeting: April 14, 10:00 AM, site trailer
Corrections: Send corrections to the GC PM within 5 calendar days of receipt; otherwise these minutes stand.

Meeting minutes on a fictional job. Every name, number and date is made up.

Item 14.3 shows the most common gap. The owner said yes in the room, but a verbal approval doesn't change the contract. The minutes record it and give the GC a date to put the change order in front of the owner for signature.

From the meeting to the next agenda

1GC project managerWrites the minutes from the notes the same day
2GC project managerSends them to every attendee and anyone given an item
3AttendeesSend corrections in writing before the deadline
4GC project managerRevises and redistributes if anything changed
5Next meetingAccepts the minutes; open items become old business

What happens to the minutes after the meeting

Federal quality control specs follow the same loop. UFGS 01 45 00 has the contractor's QC manager prepare minutes of the coordination meeting, signed by the contractor, the architect-engineer and the government, with a copy to every attendee. Each weekly quality control meeting then starts by reviewing the minutes of the previous one.

Common mistakes

Writing who said what. Record the decision and the next step; leave the argument out.
Vague owners: "design team", "all". Name the company, and the person if you can.
Editing sent minutes. Correct them through the next set, so everyone has the same version.
Recording a cost or time decision and stopping there. It still needs a written change; how to write a change order request shows the sub's side.
Minutes nobody receives. The Los Angeles meetings procedure distributes the minutes to all attendees; include anyone given an item, even if they weren't in the room.

How it works in Conflo

In Conflo's meetings tool, the GC takes attendance and writes the minutes on the meeting itself, and adds each action item with an assignee from the project team and a due date. The meeting is then marked complete. Meetings past their time with no minutes are flagged on the list.

You pick who gets the minutes from the whole project team, including people who weren't invited. Once the minutes are marked distributed they lock, and other parties can read them. Open action items carry to the next meeting in the series with a link back to where they started, and the minutes download as a PDF with attendance and every action item's status.

The bottom line

Good minutes are short: a header, attendance, numbered items each ending in a name and a date or "Closed", the logs attached, and a deadline for corrections. Keep each item's number from the meeting it started in.

If carrying open items forward by hand is where your minutes break down, let the meeting series carry them.

See how meetings work in Conflo

Sources

Project Delivery Manual, 16.7 Meeting Minutes — City of Los Angeles, Bureau of Engineering. Read October 22, 2026.
Project Delivery Manual, 16.6 Meetings — City of Los Angeles, Bureau of Engineering. Read October 22, 2026.
0600 Construction Administration Procedures Manual, §2.4.5 Project Meetings — State of Connecticut Department of Administrative Services. Read October 22, 2026.
UFGS 01 45 00, Quality Control (August 2023, change 4) — Naval Facilities Engineering Systems Command (Whole Building Design Guide). Read October 22, 2026.

Questions

What should construction meeting minutes include?

The project, meeting number, date, place and attendance; acceptance of the last minutes; old and new business as numbered items, each with the decision, responsible party and due date; the current logs and look-ahead as attachments; the next meeting date; and a deadline for corrections.

Who writes the minutes at a construction meeting?

Whoever runs the meeting, usually the general contractor's project manager or, on some public jobs, the owner's construction manager. The contract's Division 01 project meetings section may say who records and distributes them.

How soon should meeting minutes be sent?

Within a day, while everyone still agrees on what was said. Give a deadline for corrections; the City of Los Angeles uses five calendar days from receipt.

How do you number items in meeting minutes?

By the meeting the item was first raised in, then a sequence: 14.1, 14.2 for new items at meeting 14. A carried item keeps its number until it closes, so 11.3 at meeting 14 has been open for three meetings.

Can meeting minutes be changed after they are sent?

Corrections go in writing to the author and are accepted at the next meeting, which amends the record. Don't silently edit a set already sent; everyone should hold the same version.