of 7— Create your Otter.ai account

What you'll accomplish

By the end of this guide, you'll have Otter.ai set up to record and transcribe your board meetings. You'll use the AI transcript as the raw material for Claude or ChatGPT to format into polished, professional meeting minutes — cutting 2-3 hours of post-meeting work down to about 20 minutes.

What you'll need

A smartphone or tablet to record meetings (or a laptop with a microphone)
An Otter.ai account — free plan available at otter.ai
A ChatGPT or Claude account (free) for formatting the minutes
Time needed: 30 minutes setup; 10-20 minutes per meeting after
Cost: Otter.ai free (300 minutes/month) or $16.99/month for more

How-To Guide: Board Meeting Minutes with Otter.ai

Step 1: Create your Otter.ai account

Go to otter.ai in your browser or download the Otter.ai app from your phone's app store.
Click Sign up and create an account with your email.
Complete the brief onboarding (name, role — choose "Other" or "Business").

What you should see: Your Otter.ai home screen with a big orange microphone button and "My Conversations" area.

Tools:Otter.ai