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Subject:RE: This too is technical communication From:"Dori Green" <dgreen -at- associatedbrands -dot- com> To:<techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com> Date:Thu, 31 May 2007 08:54:26 -0400
John Posada asked:
How do you do your job when you are taking minutes?
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We start with a detailed agenda prepared from the previous week's minutes, with numbered action items.
#1 item is always a team agreement whether to stop no matter what after one hour, or keep going to complete the agenda today.
#2 item is always an a) b) c) d) of "new business".
#3 item is always a list of documents submitted for a) signoff; b) cancellation. The signers have already seen the docs during the review process, so their signature at this point is pretty much a rubber stamp and they can do it while we discuss other business. The agenda/minutes record which documents were signed when, and while it adds to my stack to be carried to the conference room it keeps 'em from losing the danged docs (which tends to happen if I circulate them for signature).
YES I would LOVE to talk my company into buying an electronic distribution/control system. That's another whole fight.
Notetaking is just a matter of recording "action completed" or "no action" and the excuse of the week from the responsible party as to why it isn't done yet. For new topics we note only the briefest of discussion summaries, person(s) responsible, specific task(s), and due date.
The team works well together in terms of professional behavior. Facilitating the meeting becomes a task of occasionally asking if the team wants to continue discussion on a tangent at this time or note it as a new item for further discussion at another time and return to the listed agenda topic.
I have facilitated teams where we just about had to frisk for daggers at the door (3rd/1st shift operator teams, for instance -- they really hated each other). When facilitation is more difficult, somebody else must take the minutes.
This format has served well to keep us from repeating decisions (major decisions are recorded in an Access database and policies are made into controlled supporting documents). My boss questioned once or twice why we had to keep so much detail in the minutes, but he understood when the new VP wanted a history of what we had been doing for the past year. She was very impressed when she had it in her hands in less than half an hour.
Detailed minutes and agendas have not kept the project from stalling completely when management has cancelled the weekly meeting for months at a time because of other priorities. But that's another problem and probably another topic.
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