Frequently asked questions
Straight answers about board minutes — and about Minutes Mojo.
About Minutes Mojo
- What is Minutes Mojo?
- Minutes Mojo is a tool that turns board meeting recordings into complete, formatted, board-ready minutes — no note-taking, no transcript cleanup, no scramble the next day. Record your meeting (Zoom, in person, a phone on the table), upload it, and walk out with finished minutes. It's built for the people running nonprofit, HOA, and municipal boards who end up doing the minutes on top of everything else.
- Who created Minutes Mojo?
- Minutes Mojo was created by Marci Cornell-Feist, its founder and CEO. She's spent 30 years coaching the people who hold board-governed organizations together (executive directors, board secretaries, the staff member who inherits the minutes) across nearly 1,000 boards, and built Minutes Mojo out of that experience.
- What are board minutes?
- Board minutes are the official written record of what a board decided at a meeting: who attended, whether a quorum was present, the motions made, how votes were handled, and the actions authorized. They're a legal record of what was decided, not a transcript of everything that was said.
- How much does Minutes Mojo cost?
- Pricing starts at $499/year for one board, unlimited board-ready minutes from your recordings, and access to human support. Additional committees can be added on. Organizations with multiple boards, like nonprofit councils, HOA management companies, or municipalities, get volume/group pricing; reach out and we'll work out a plan together. Your first meeting is always free, no credit card required.
- Is my data secure with Minutes Mojo?
- Yes. Your recordings, transcripts, and minutes are yours. We don't sell your data, and we don't let third parties like OpenAI or Google use it to train their models. Everything is encrypted in transit and at rest, stored securely (we use AWS), and protected by access controls so only people you've authorized in your organization can see it. AI drafts the first version, but a human always reviews and approves before anything is final. You can ask us to delete your data at any time, and it's removed automatically after your account closes.
From our guides & articles
Answers pulled from across the site. Follow the link for the full story.
- Who is responsible for good board minutes?
- Everyone in the room: the minute taker, the executive director, the board chair, and every board member who votes to approve them. Read: Board Minutes Are Everyone's Responsibility — And Nobody Knows It
- What do regulators and courts look for in board minutes?
- Evidence of oversight: whether the board understood its finances, set and followed up on expectations, made decisions through a documented process, and handled conflicts of interest appropriately. Read: Board Minutes Seem Like a Humble Problem — Until They Become Legal Evidence
- What is the biggest mistake new minute takers make?
- Assuming their job is to capture everything that happened, rather than recording what the board decided. Read: Help! I've Been Asked to Take Board Minutes. Now What?
- Can I use a Zoom or Otter AI summary as my board minutes?
- No. An AI transcript is raw material, not minutes. Someone with judgment still has to decide what belongs in the official record. Read: Help! I've Been Asked to Take Board Minutes. Now What?
- How many days does a California HOA have to provide meeting minutes?
- Under the Davis-Stirling Act, a California HOA has 30 days from the meeting to make minutes (or draft minutes) available to homeowners. Missing this window can cost the association a $500 fine per violation, plus the requesting owner's legal fees. Read: What California HOAs Need to Know About the Davis-Stirling Act
- Are HOA meeting minutes required in Washington?
- Yes. Under the Washington Uniform Common Interest Ownership Act (WUCIOA), every board and owner meeting must have a written record of all decisions made — informal notes or memory are no longer sufficient. Major transparency rules took effect January 1, 2026, with full compliance required of all HOAs by 2028. Read: What the New Legislation Means for Washington HOAs
- What are board meeting minutes?
- Board meeting minutes are the official, permanent record of the decisions a board made and the actions it authorized. They capture what was decided — the motions, who made them, and the vote counts — in a neutral, factual tone, rather than a word-for-word account of everything that was said. Read: What Makes Minutes Legal?
Ask the Minutes Maven
Real questions from real minute takers — each with its own short, quotable answer.
- The board keeps asking me to change things in the minutes. How do I know who's right?
Board members are not always right about minutes. Your job is not to make everyone happy. It's to produce an accurate legal record of what the board decided.
- I've been copying the same minutes format for six years. Am I doing it wrong?
Maybe. "Nobody has complained" is not the same as "this is correct." You may be faithfully reproducing a format that was never quite right to begin with.
- My board doesn't want to be recorded. But without a recording the minutes take forever. What do I do?
Yes, you can change their minds. The argument they're making is about what happens to the recording afterward, not the recording itself. That's a solvable problem.
- Can I use AI to take the minutes so I can actually participate in the meeting?
AI can help you significantly. It cannot replace you entirely. Not yet. And the bigger problem here isn't the technology.
- Can I just use the Zoom summary as my board minutes?
No. A Zoom summary is a technology product. Board minutes are a legal document. They are not the same thing, and one cannot substitute for the other.