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RE: Taking Minutes at Meetings

Subject: RE: Taking Minutes at Meetings
From: Marilynne Smith <marilyns -at- qualcomm -dot- com>
To: "TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com>
Date: Thu, 08 Mar 2001 13:46:17 -0800

Unfortunately, I have the opposite problem. Give me a laptop and you'll get notes that make you think you were sitting there at the meeting. I think they call this "simultaneous transcription." After the meeting, a spell check and some formatting and people can have the minutes within an hour or so of the meeting. They love it. I don't.

Sitting in typing position for 3 or 4 hours at a stretch is difficult - not only because of the repetitive stress, but also from the body being "in place" for that long. Seven or 8 hours is a killer.

On the other hand, because of this ability I was able to sit in on sessions my clients wouldn't invite me to otherwise. These sessions increased my understanding of my work immensely. (In order to do this type of note taking, you need to type what you hear without involving the brain a lot, therefore the brain is available for absorbing information.)

So, I did it for one client. I don't think I'd do it again. Not in this fashion.

Marilynne

At 12:01 PM 3/8/2001 -0800, Janet Valade wrote:

If anyone asks me to take minutes, I tell them I am a really poor minute
taker. If they insist, I take minutes. No one ever asks me again. This is
not a strategy. I simply do not have the skills required to listen and write
at the same time. I could not do it in college and so did not take notes. I
still cannot do it. If I am writing, I am not listening, let alone
contributing.

The best note-taking strategy I have encountered was implemented by a boss
of mine in a previous job. At meetings, a computer and projector were set up
and the minutes were projected for all to see. The minutes were written as
the meeting progressed by the person running the meeting. Thus, the meeting
chair tended to summarize discussions and decisions as we went (in good
meeting chair style). Everyone at the meeting had the opportunity to comment
on and ask for changes to the minutes as they were written--to object to
wording, to disagree with conclusions, to ask for more information to be
included, etc.. At the end of the meeting, the minutes were done and could
be distributed then and there via the closest printer. Since we all could
see and contribute to the minutes, we didn't need to write our own notes on
the meeting, except for private notes.

Janet

Janet Valade
Technical Writer
Systech Corporation, San Diego, CA
mailto:janetv -at- systech -dot- com


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