Template
Remote weekly team meeting template
A weekly team meeting for a team that is never in one room: updates written before the call, so the live time goes on discussion, decisions and actually seeing each other.
The agenda, with a time for each part
- Check-in round5 min
- One word or one sentence each: how is your week going?
- Questions on the written updates10 min
- What in the updates needs a reply or a decision?
- The one topic we must discuss live15 min
- What needs everyone on the call, rather than a thread?
- Decisions, read back7 min
- What exactly did we decide, and who writes it down?
- Who needs help this week5 min
- Who is overloaded, and who can take something?
- Close3 min
- Anything the people not on this call need to hear?
How the notes read afterwards
A made-up example, so you can see the shape. In a real call each line carries the words that were said and who said them.
Check-in. Mostly “busy”; two people “stuck”.
From the updates. The billing bug needs a decision: fix now or after the release.
Live topic. Fix now — Omar and Lea pair on it tomorrow.
Help. Sara is overloaded; Ben takes the supplier calls this week.
Running it well
- Ask for written updates by an hour before, in the same short format. Reading them takes five minutes; hearing them takes thirty.
- Run a check-in round with everyone’s camera on. For many remote people it is the only time they see the whole team.
- Read decisions back aloud at the end and post them in the team channel straight away, for colleagues in other time zones.
Ways to change it
When to skip it. If the written updates show nothing to decide and nobody needs help, cancel the call and say so in the channel.
Questions
How do you run a weekly meeting for a remote team?
Collect written updates before the call, use the live time for discussion and decisions, and post decisions in writing straight after.
How long should a remote team meeting be?
Usually thirty to forty-five minutes; long video calls tire people more than meetings in a room.
Should remote team meetings be recorded?
Recording helps colleagues in other time zones, but the written decisions matter more than the recording.
What happens in the room
Everybody joins from the link, with no account. The agenda sits beside the call and each item fills in with what was said about it, under the name of the person who said it.
More templates
Try Meetful
Meetings that take their own notes
Free video meetings in the browser: every line of the transcript under the name of who said it, and the summary and action items when you hang up. Nothing to install — guests just open the link.