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Ellen Fenwick wrote:
Technical communicators are often excluded from the early stages of the
development process because the ways in which they could contribute
aren't known and appreciated. Being a notetaker in project meetings is
one way you can "get a foot in the door," and move from there to
demonstrating how valuable your early contributions can be to a project
in other significant ways.
Ellen;s response to note taking reminds me of a quote by John A. Shedd
"Opportunities are seldom labeled".
Opportunity may be knocking during these meetings and you may not know
it. However, I concur that summarizing will save you time, point out
only the important stuff that's been agreed to and action items that
need to be following up on. Use your communication skills to convince
the
"powers that be" to modify the approach.
Deb Newman
Technical Writer and frequent volunteer
Edmonton, Alberta, Canada
dnewman -at- sierrasys -dot- com
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