Turn your own anonymised notes of the public part of a meeting into draft minutes with a decisions and actions table

A practising clerk and the NAGAS handbook both put minutes at the centre of the job, and the handbook warns that a good set takes longer than people expect, particularly early on. Good minutes follow a set pattern: numbered to match the agenda, in the third person and reported speech, with decisions clear and actions given an owner and a date. AI is good at that reshaping if it only has your own typed notes of the open (Part One) items, with roles in place of names and nothing about pupils or staff. It cannot know what was decided, what is confidential or what the law requires, so every decision and action is yours.

A free AI chat tool, then your own email or messaging app

Steps

1. Before you type anything, mark every agenda item as Part One (open) or Part Two (confidential). Write Part Two items and anything from a hearing, appeal, complaint, exclusion, staffing or safeguarding matter by hand in your board's own secure system. Do not put them into the AI tool at all.
2. Take your own notes of the Part One items and replace every name with a role (the Chair, the Headteacher, Governor A). Remove anything that could identify a pupil or a member of staff.
3. Under each agenda item number, type what was discussed in short phrases, then a line starting DECISION: with the decision exactly as the board made it, and a line starting ACTION: with the role, task and deadline. Only write DECISION: where the board made one. Use a line starting NOTED: only for something the board received for information.
4. Paste only your own typed, anonymised notes into the prompt, never a recording, a transcript or the output of an AI notetaker, and read the draft against your own notes. Check every decision and every action, and anything the tool added or smoothed.
5. Add names yourself only where an action is assigned to an individual, then put the minutes in your board's template and send them to the Chair for review before they go to all governors.
6. File the signed minutes in the board's records and follow your board's rule on any recording or notes: the handbook says that, as a rule, a recording should be destroyed once the final minutes are approved.

The exact prompt

I am a clerk to a school governing board in England. Using ONLY my anonymised notes below, draft minutes of the open (Part One) items of a governing board meeting.
You must NOT add any fact, reason, decision, vote or action that is not in my notes. Do not give an opinion or advice. Do not say whether anything is lawful, compliant or confidential. If a decision, vote or deadline is unclear, put it in the list of queries instead of guessing. The notes use roles, not names; keep it that way.
Style rules: use the third person and reported speech in the past tense (for example 'The Headteacher reported that...'); number each minute to match the agenda item; do not use individual names unless an action is assigned; write decisions in a separate line starting 'The board resolved' or 'The board noted', only where I wrote DECISION or NOTED; keep each item concise and factual.
Meeting type and date: [text].
Agenda item numbers and titles: [text].
My notes under each item, using roles only, with DECISION: and ACTION: lines: [text].
Produce: (1) the draft minutes, numbered to match the agenda; (2) an actions table with columns minute number, action, role responsible, deadline; (3) a list of queries for me where my notes are unclear or where a decision, vote or deadline is missing.