Use Zoom's Meeting Summary to Document Team Meetings and Court Prep Calls

What This Does

Zoom's meeting summary automatically generates a summary and list of action items at the end of a meeting, so you don't have to take notes during court prep calls, family team meetings, or multi-disciplinary team (MDT) conferences.

Before You Start

• Your agency uses Zoom for virtual meetings (most county agencies now do)
• Your Zoom plan includes meeting summary (check with your IT department; it's included with eligible paid Zoom Workplace plans at no extra cost)
• You're the meeting host or co-host, OR the host has turned on meeting summary for all participants

Steps

1. Turn On Meeting Summary Before the Meeting

Before starting or joining a meeting, sign in at zoom.us and open Settings. Look for the meeting summary controls in the AI section and turn on automatic meeting summaries. This is a one-time setup. Zoom used to call these features "AI Companion" and dropped that name in 2026, so older help articles and colleagues may still use the old term.

What you should see: A control for meeting summaries switched on.

2. Start the Meeting and Turn On Summaries

When your meeting starts, hover over the AI icon in the meeting toolbar. Select the Meeting summary checkbox, then click Start Zoom AI.

A small banner will appear in the meeting letting people know it is being summarized. Participants will be notified. This is required by Zoom.

Troubleshooting: If you don't see the AI icon, you may not have the right plan. Ask your IT department: "Does our Zoom plan include meeting summary?"

3. Run the Meeting Normally

Continue the meeting as you normally would. You don't need to do anything special. Zoom is listening and taking notes in the background. Focus on the conversation.

4. Receive the Summary After the Meeting

When the meeting ends, Zoom will email you (and the host) a meeting summary within a few minutes. It will include:

• A brief summary of the discussion
• Key decisions made
• Action items with owners and dates (if mentioned in the meeting)

What you should see: An email from Zoom with the subject "Meeting Summary: [Meeting Title]."

5. Review and Use in Your Case Notes

Read the summary. Copy relevant action items and decisions into your case notes. For a family team meeting, the summary might say: "Family agreed to increase visitation to twice weekly. Mother will enroll in parenting class by April 15. Worker will contact school regarding attendance." Paste that directly into the case record.

Real Example

Scenario: You have a pre-court coordination call with an attorney, a guardian ad litem, and your supervisor. Four people are talking, everyone has different information, and decisions are being made quickly.

What you do: Start the meeting summary at the start of the call. After the call, Zoom emails you: "Summary: Team agreed to recommend 90-day extension of foster care placement. Attorney will file motion by March 28. Worker to submit court report by March 24. GAL supports reunification with additional services."

What you get: A documented record of the call in under 5 minutes. No frantic note-taking during the conversation, no follow-up emails asking "wait, what did we decide?"

Tips

• Tell participants at the start: "I have Zoom's meeting summary running so I don't have to take notes. It'll email everyone a summary after." Most people appreciate this.
• For family team meetings with clients present, ask your supervisor whether your agency's consent protocols require additional disclosure to clients.
• Copy the summary into your case notes the same day. It's already in document-ready format.

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