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I started my present job at the beginning of May '05. Part of my job is
to capture the meeting minutes for the team's weekly meetings.
*I am trying to learn how many other tech writers have this kind of a
responsibility and how they do it.*
Further,
I work on a Govt. contract. These meetings get very involved and a
number of the key participants talk very fast.
Initially I was trying to capture these events manually (and no, I don't
know shorthand.) It was impossible.
I asked boss if I could use a recorder. She said ok. I've been
transcribing minutes since then via a 10 year old Sony microcassette
recorder (that is my personal recording device brought in from home).
The recorder is old and the tapes are not really recording well anymore.
Contract has not yet received our 2nd round of funding and so no $ to
upgrade to a more modern solution.
Does anyone have any suggestions on how I can deal with this?
This is very time intensive as I have to use the playback button a lot
during the transcription of the weekly meetings.
My boss actually keeps telling me that I rely too much on the recorder
and that I should go back to doing it manually-I entirely DISAGREE on
this. She brings this up often!!! : (
I have just bought a iRiver gadget that someone on this list
recommended. Have not unpacked it yet, but, it is a combo digital voice
recorder and MP3 player. As I understand this approach, I will use the
iRiver to record the meeting and then plug it into my laptop and have
the meeting minutes transcription done via the computer??
I may be dreaming again here...
These meeting minutes are sometimes very time intensive to get into a
document. Meetings are typically 1 hr and several of the participants
are on the speaker phone (remote in another state) and one has a heavy
accent and one speaks really low.
Thoughts are most welcomed. Thank You.
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