If you've been hearing about AI tools lately and wondering whether they can help you automate meeting minutes, you're not alone. A lot of clerks are asking the same question, especially the ones who feel stretched thin, juggling long meetings, complicated motions, and deadlines that never slow down. The good news is that tools like OpenAI's ChatGPT can help. They can take a huge transcript or recording from like Google Meet, Microsoft Teams, or Zoom, and turn it into a draft in a few minutes, which sounds like magic if you've ever typed up minutes late at night.
And since we're talking about ChatGPT, we'll share the obvious little irony upfront. Yes, we use AI to help write bits and pieces of this guide about ChatGPT. If it can explain itself this clearly, it might be able to help with your minutes, too. 😉
Once you see what goes into the DIY process, we'll also show you how ClerkMinutes handles the same work in a much simpler, clerk-friendly way without the prompting, chunking, or formatting gymnastics. You can see both approaches side by side and decide what fits your comfort level and workload.
In this guide, I'll walk you through the entire process in plain English, starting with what ChatGPT is, where to find it, and how to talk to it. Then we'll go step by step through the exact AI-powered process clerks are using right now to create minutes with it. Every instruction, every prompt, and every click is spelled out.
Think of ChatGPT as basically that high-school job-shadow kid who shows up in a blazer and insists they totally understand municipal procedure after watching five minutes of a meeting. They're fast, confident, and eager to help, but they have no idea how anything actually works. If you don't supervise them and give crystal-clear instructions, you're going to end up with a mess.
And even after it gives you a doc, you still have to double-check the motions, votes, language, and formatting. It's faster than manual note-taking, but it's not a clerk, and it doesn't instinctively understand the rules you follow every day.
What ChatGPT can do for minutes today
Before we get into the detailed steps, let's slow down and cover the basics, especially if you haven't used ChatGPT before or you don't feel "techy." Think of ChatGPT as a very advanced typing assistant. You give it text, and it gives you cleaner, more organized text back. It doesn't know anything about your municipality, your procedures, or your meeting rules. It only works with whatever you type or upload into it.
You can access ChatGPT here on any computer, or by downloading the ChatGPT app from the Apple App Store or Google Play Store on your phone.
If you want to generate minutes in ChatGPT, you'll want to sign up for ChatGPT Plus ($20/month). The free version doesn't include the advanced models needed for long transcripts, motions, or complex discussions, so the results won't be reliable enough for official records.
Once you're in, it looks like a simple message box. And it works just like texting a friend or sending an email to a colleague. You type your instructions, press Enter, and it replies. You don't need special software, and nothing installs on your computer. It's all web-based.
For meeting minutes, ChatGPT is basically a very fast summarizer. You can paste your agenda, your attendance list, and your transcript into it, and it can turn all of that into a full draft of minutes. The newest version, GPT-5.1 Thinking, is strong enough to handle very long meetings, lots of back-and-forth discussion, and complicated topics without getting completely lost
What ChatGPT can't do well
Even the newest versions of ChatGPT have blind spots. None of these are your fault or user error. They're just things the tool isn't built to understand the way a clerk does.
Here's what you should expect.
1. It makes things up when it's unsure.
This is the biggest issue with transcribing meetings. If the meeting transcript is unclear, missing, or confusing, ChatGPT will sometimes hallucinate or fill in the blanks with something that sounds right but never actually happened. For instance, it might transcribe, "Motion carried unanimously," even if no vote was taken.
2. It rewrites formal language without asking.
ChatGPT is an all-in-one tool, not a tool specifically for clerks. This means it often tries to streamline text to sound simple, which means it may rewrite legalese, ordinances, procedural language, or other key points that must stay exact. For instance, a zoning description might turn into a casual meeting summaries, which is not what you want in official government records.
3. It drops agenda items or blends sections together.
ChatGPT doesn't instinctively know where one agenda item ends and the next begins. For instance, discussion from Item 4 might accidentally get mixed into Item 5 or left off the follow-up altogether.
4. It struggles with complicated motions and amendments.
Motions with layers, such as amendments, motions to table, and motions that were withdrawn, often confuse the model unless you walk it through the structure line by line.
5. It does not keep an audit trail.
There's no built-in real-time history to show what changed and when. If you need version control, you have to manage that yourself.
6. It doesn't follow local procedures automatically.
ChatGPT doesn't know:
Your rules
Your templates
Your statutes
Your preferred formatting.
You have to tell it every detail you want it to follow.
These limitations don't mean ChatGPT is bad. It just means it's not a clerk and it has zero understanding of local government rules until you teach it. It's great at speed and organization, but you (the human) still need to bring accuracy, judgment, and compliance.
So yes, ChatGPT can be helpful. It can take a massive transcript and give you a clean, readable minutes fast. But it will not produce publish-ready minutes by itself. You still need to guide it, double-check the details, and format the final document the way your municipality requires.
Before you start: What you'll need
Before you try using ChatGPT for minutes, it helps to gather everything you normally use when you're writing minutes by hand. That's because ChatGPT isn't magic. It can only work with the information you give it. Think of it like baking. If you give it all the ingredients, you'll get something decent back. If you give it half the ingredients, it starts guessing, and that's where things go wrong.
Here's what you'll want to have ready:
A numbered agenda.
This gives ChatGPT the exact order of the meeting. If you skip this step, it tends to mix things up or make assumptions.
Your attendance list.
Include council or board members, staff, presenters, and anyone else who needs to be listed. If someone arrived late or left early, note that too.
Your transcript, audio notes, or written notes
ChatGPT can summarize almost anything, but it can't invent what wasn't recorded. The clearer your notes, the better its draft will be.
All motions and votes
These are the pieces that must be correct. If a vote wasn't clearly stated in your notes or transcript, ChatGPT will either skip it or guess, and we don't want guesses in official records.
Public comment notes
Even short summaries help ChatGPT keep track of who spoke and what the topic was.
Any formatting or templates your municipality uses
ChatGPT doesn't know your preferred style unless you show it. Paste your template or upload a few PDF examples right in ChatGPT if you have them.
ADA-friendly considerations
Clear headings, plain language, and readable spacing still need a human check, even after ChatGPT drafts the text.
If you're already doing all of this today when you write minutes manually, great. You're already halfway set up. Using ChatGPT will just give you a faster starting point once all the pieces are in place.
How to generate minutes in ChatGPT: the complete, detailed workflow
If someone on your staff has never used ChatGPT before, they should still be able to follow these step by step instructions and get a draft out of the system even if it requires heavy cleanup afterward.
Step 1: Pick the right ChatGPT model
Start by selecting the strongest model available in your account. This single step determines how well ChatGPT will handle long transcripts, complex motions, overlapping speakers, and procedural language.
For best results, we recommend using GPT-5.1 Thinking.
If you aren't familiar with ChatGPT, avoid older models that cap out on memory or new model versions with "instant" or "auto."
Here's what to say once the model is selected.
I will be using this chat to generate accurate, agenda-aligned meeting minutes. Do not draft anything yet. Wait for the agenda, attendance list, transcript, and instructions. Tell me 'OK' when you're ready for the next instruction.
Step 2: Paste your agenda before anything else
The agenda is the backbone of your minutes. If ChatGPT doesn't have it upfront, it will guess or rearrange structure later.
Paste the full agenda as your first real message along with this prompt up top. Or upload, your Docx or PDF file straight to ChatGPT.
Here is the agenda for this meeting. Follow this exact order when generating the minutes.Do not add, remove, rename, or reorder any items.Confirm that you understand.
Why this matters:
It prevents ChatGPT from inserting standard agenda items your municipality doesn’t use.
It forces the model to anchor all summaries to the correct sequence.
It reduces hallucinated motions or invented transitions.
Step 3: Add your attendance list with firm guardrails
ChatGPT loves inventing participants. Shut that down early.
Paste your attendance list (staff, presenters, guests, etc), including:
Full names
Titles
Late arrivals
Early departures
Then insert all of it in the next prompt along with these custom instructions. This keeps your minutes clean, consistent, and compliant.
Use their exact first and last names and titles in the minutes. For instance, say Mayor Emily Johnson, Councilmember Joe Smith, etc. Do not create additional attendees. If someone’s role is unclear, ask before assuming anything.
Step 4: Upload your transcript or meeting notes the right way
The transcript is where most complexity lives. How you upload it affects accuracy.
If your transcript is short (10–15 pages or under), you can paste or upload the whole thing at once.
If your transcript is long, break it into chunks for better, more accurate results. Label each one clearly.
Example file names:
CouncilMeeting_Jan16_Part1.txt
CouncilMeeting_Jan16_Part2.txt
CouncilMeeting_Jan16_Part3.txt
Before sending anything to ChatGPT, reset expectations by anchoring your transcript with this prompt up top.
I am going to upload the transcript in multiple parts.Do not summarize yet.After each part, reply only with: ‘Received Part X.’Wait for the message ‘All parts uploaded’ before taking any action.”
Then upload each part one at a time in your existing chat.
After the final chunk, add this prompt.
All parts uploaded. Confirm you have the complete transcript and wait for further instructions.
This step is important because:
Prevents early summarization
Ensures continuity across long files
Reduces dropped content
Prevents ChatGPT from guessing missing pieces
Step 5: Tell ChatGPT exactly what the minutes should look like
ChatGPT is not a municipal tool. You have to teach it your structure. If you have an official minutes template, paste it in ChatGPT. Or better yet, upload example minutes as PDFs right into ChatGPT.
If not, use a standard government structure:
Call to Order
Roll Call
Approval of Agenda
Approval of Previous Minutes
Old Business
New Business
Agenda Items (numbered)
Motions and Votes
Public Comment
Adjournment
Then give explicit formatting rules in your prompt, like this:
Use the structure above exactly as written.Keep all section headers.Do not paraphrase legal or procedural language.Quote any ordinance or resolution language exactly as stated in the transcript.Separate discussion from action items clearly.For instance, each agenda item that is discussed, when there is a motion made, indicate who made the motion, who seconded it, and whether or not the motion passed, (e.g. "Selectboard Member Gigstead made a motion, seconded by Selectboard member Reichel. Motioned passed unanimously."
Step 6: Generate the first draft
Now you’re ready to ask ChatGPT to produce the initial minutes draft. You want to give it the tightest possible instructions so it doesn’t wander.
Here is the full, recommended prompt:
Using the agenda, attendance list, and transcript provided, draft formal meeting minutes.
Follow these rules exactly:
Follow the agenda order exactly as provided.Capture every motion, amendment, seconder, and vote count exactly as stated.If the transcript is unclear, write: ‘The transcript does not specify.’Do not add details that are not present in the transcript.Do not paraphrase legal or procedural text. Quote it when needed.Keep the tone neutral and factual.Use clear section headings matching the agenda.Keep public comment summaries concise but accurate.Distinguish discussion from action.If no action was taken on an item, state that explicitly.
This produces the closest thing to a correct first draft the model is capable of, but it can still contain mistakes.
Step 7: Identify errors and revise the draft
Even with perfect setup, expect issues like:
Incorrect vote counts
Missing motions
Missing amendments
Invented actions
Merged agenda items
Reworded legal statements
Softened or overly vague summaries
Incorrect names attributed to who made a motion and who seconded it
Go line by line and check the draft against your transcript.
When you find an issue, copy only the affected section with this prompt:
This section contains an error. Here is the corrected information: [your correction].Update this section only.Do not revise any other part of the minutes.
Keeping revisions contained prevents the model from rewriting sections that were already correct.
Step 8: Final formatting and compliance checks
ChatGPT does not understand municipal formatting requirements, so you still need to finalize the document manually.
Make sure to review all of the following:
Spacing and indentation
Consistent heading styles
Motion formatting (“Motion by ___, second by ___”)
Correct spelling of names
Vote tallies
ADA-friendly structure (clear headings, readable line length, plain text)
Correct placement of public comments
Once clean, export to Word or PDF for your records, packet, or publication.
This final step usually takes the longest because it involves human judgment.
Real-world ChatGPT use cases for municipal meetings
Every meeting type has its own quirks, and ChatGPT handles each one differently. These examples can help you set expectations before you start.
City Council meetings
City Council meetings are some of the hardest for ChatGPT to summarize because they often involve a mix of motions, amendments, procedural detours, and back-and-forth discussion. When council members debate a motion, amend it, withdraw it, or bring it back up later in the meeting, ChatGPT can lose track of the sequence unless you guide it very clearly.
Common issues you’ll see:
It lists a motion before the discussion instead of after.
It declares a motion “carried” even if the transcript never shows a vote.
It gets amendments out of order or merges them together.
It summarizes the debate too vaguely (“A discussion took place.”)
City Council minutes can absolutely be created with ChatGPT, but you must give it strict structure and review every motion and vote carefully.
Planning & Zoning meetings
Planning and Zoning meetings involve technical descriptions, parcel numbers, legal references, and land-use terminology that ChatGPT does not understand out of the box. It tends to simplify or paraphrase these details unless you tell it to quote them exactly.
Typical pitfalls include:
It shortens or rewrites legal descriptions (“A property near Elm Street” instead of the full text).
It misinterprets zoning terminology (e.g., Treating “conditional use permit” as a general building permit).
It blends applicant statements, staff recommendations, and public comments into one block.
When working with these transcripts, give clear instructions in your prompts like,“Do not paraphrase any legal or technical language. Quote it exactly as written.”
Otherwise, you’ll spend time correcting details that must be precise for compliance.
Committee meetings
Most committee meetings are shorter and less complex, which means ChatGPT performs better here, but you still need clean structure and complete attendance information.
Common issues:
It skips straight to the action and ignores smaller procedural notes.
It invents transitions that didn’t happen (“The committee unanimously agreed…”)
It may turn informal discussion into a motion if the conversation sounds action-oriented.
Even easy meetings require careful review of what was actually decided versus what ChatGPT assumed was decided.
Meetings with heavy public comments
Public comment is where ChatGPT’s summarizing instincts can become a problem. Its goal is to condense information, but condensing too much can change the meaning of what a resident said.
Examples of what can go wrong:
Comments become overly short or generic (“Several residents expressed concerns.”)
The tone gets softened or altered.
Multiple speakers get blended into one summary.
It removes emotionally charged language, which may matter for the record.
The easiest fix is a simple instruction in your prompts, like, “Summarize each public comment individually. Do not combine speakers. Do not change the meaning of what was said.”
Public comment is also the area where a human’s judgment matters most.
Compliance and risk considerations of using ChatGPT for minutes
This is where clerks should be extra careful.
Open meeting laws require accurate records.
Hallucinated motions can create legal problems.
You don’t get version control or an audit trail in ChatGPT.
Formatting consistency is manual.
Sensitive documents may not be safe to upload depending on internal policy.
ADA formatting still requires a human pass.
The hidden costs of doing minutes in ChatGPT
After talking to clerks trying this out, three issues come up repeatedly.
1. Time.
Setting up the prompts, feeding transcripts in chunks, correcting errors, and formatting a final draft takes far more time than expected.
2. Accuracy risk.
Even the newest models invent motions, mix up vote counts, skip agenda items and reorder discussions. You end up re-verifying the entire meeting manually.
3. Inconsistent outputs.
Different models behave differently. A prompt that worked last month may produce something completely new after a model update.
How ClerkMinutes simplifies all of this
If the ChatGPT workflow feels like a lot, that’s because it is a lot. ChatGPT is powerful, but it wasn’t built for municipal work, and it doesn’t understand your rules, your deadlines, or what your town expects to see on the page.
ClerkMinutes was designed specifically for clerks, so many of the problems you have to fix manually with ChatGPT never appear in the first place.
Here’s what that looks like in real, everyday clerk language.
ClerkMinutes builds the structure for you.
You don’t have to paste templates or remind it about agenda order. When you upload your agenda and transcript, ClerkMinutes automatically creates a clean minutes that matches how your municipality formats its minutes. Call to Order, Roll Call, motions, votes, everything falls into the right place without you wrestling prompts.
It captures motions and votes accurately.
This is the part ChatGPT gets wrong the most. ClerkMinutes doesn’t guess, soften, or helpfully rewrite. What was said in the meeting goes into the minutes correctly, in the right order, without invented actions.
It keeps formatting consistent every single time.
ADA-friendly headings, clean spacing, numbering that doesn’t go rogue. All handled automatically. You’re not cleaning up line breaks or retyping headers after the fact. Your minutes look the same from meeting to meeting, regardless of who drafted them.
No chunking or uploading parts of your transcript.
ClerkMinutes handles long meetings without forcing you to chop files into Part 1, Part 2, Part 3. You upload your audio or transcript once, and the system processes the entire meeting in one go.
Your work is stored safely and versioned.
Every edit is saved. Every version is kept. You always have a clear record of what changed and when, which is something ChatGPT simply doesn’t offer.
It’s built for how clerks actually work.
You can customize templates so your minutes match your municipality’s style. You can invite coworkers to review or approve drafts. You can publish minutes online for public access without exporting files or juggling platforms. It removes the small-but-annoying tasks that pile up and eat your time.
And the biggest value? Time.
If you’re juggling multiple meetings a week, thick packets, legal requirements, and a never-ending inbox, ClerkMinutes gives you back hours. Instead of fighting with prompts or correcting AI misunderstandings, you start with a polished draft and spend your time reviewing, not rebuilding.
ClerkMinutes is simply taking the repetitive, time-consuming grunt work parts of the job off your plate so you can focus on the more exciting and strategic parts of your role.
How to generate minutes in ClerkMinutes
After seeing everything that goes into using ChatGPT: Selecting the right model, pasting agendas, uploading transcripts in parts, writing prompts, correcting mistakes, and cleaning up formatting, it helps to see how ClerkMinutes works and why it might be a much faster and more accurate way to generate minutes.
That’s because ClerkMinutes is built for municipal workflows, so you don’t have to train it, supervise it, or wrestle with prompts.
Here’s the entire process from start to finish.
Step 1
Upload Your Agenda
Just drag and drop your agenda into ClerkMinutes. That’s it. You don’t have to paste it into a chat window or tell the system to follow this order exactly. ClerkMinutes reads the agenda automatically and uses it to create the outline of your minutes.
Step 2
Upload Your Meeting Recording
Upload the audio or video recording of your meeting: Zoom, YouTube, etc. If you already have a transcript, you can upload that too. Unlike ChatGPT, you don’t have to break the file into chunks or label anything.
Step 3
Assign Speakers
ClerkMinutes gives you a clean transcription of the meeting and identifies the speakers for you. You can quickly confirm who’s who, and if anything is mislabeled, it takes just a click to fix it. No wrestling with a model that doesn’t know your council members by name.
Step 4
Generate your minutes and customize as needed
With your agenda, audio, and speaker assignments in place, ClerkMinutes drafts your minutes for you. They arrive already organized, already aligned to your agenda, and already formatted the way municipal minutes should look.
From there, you can:
Adjust a sentence
Add context
Clarify a motion
Highlight key decisions
Refine public comment
Run quick AI Actions / Custom Instructions for edits.
The editor is built for clerks, not programmers or AI power users. When everything looks correct, just download your minutes as a Word document or PDF and you’re done.
So when should you use ChatGPT vs ClerkMinutes?
By this point, you’ve seen that ChatGPT can help with minutes, especially if you’re comfortable giving it very clear instructions and checking its work closely. It’s great for certain situations:
Quick summaries when you just need the general idea.
Experimenting or learning what AI can do.
Small, informal meetings where one or two details out of place won’t cause problems.
If you enjoy the hands-on control and don’t mind spending time reviewing and fixing the draft, the DIY ChatGPT method will get you there eventually.
But for most clerks, the workday isn’t built around extra time, and minutes aren’t optional. They have to be right. That’s where ClerkMinutes comes in.
ClerkMinutes is a better fit when:
Accuracy matters and you can’t risk missing a motion or mixing up a vote.
Your formatting needs to stay consistent from meeting to meeting.
Your municipality has specific requirements you must follow.
You don’t want to recheck every detail or rewrite long sections.
You’re working with long, complicated meetings that are hard to summarize manually.
In fact, a lot of clerks end up using both tools. ChatGPT for quick, informal tasks, and ClerkMinutes for anything official that goes into the record or online.
If you like having complete control and don’t mind babysitting the details, ChatGPT is perfectly fine. But if you want a tool that handles the heavy lifting, keeps things organized, and reduces the risk of mistakes, ClerkMinutes will make your life a whole lot easier.
Start a free trial here and upload your first meeting below to see how ClerkMinutes works with your real workflow.