[Fg-general] Agenda item: Minutes Standardization + old biz priority

[afsmith]

It's already up on the wiki page as old business, but I just wanted to
bring up the particular proposals by Luke and I for inclusion in that
agenda item.
They're more tangible than just "standardize the minutes" and I think
mention of them, even if people disagree, will get the gears turning

On 4/18/09, Luke Closs <lukecloss at gmail.com> wrote:
> On Sat, Apr 18, 2009 at 11:48 AM, afsmith <adventurecomplete at gmail.com>
> wrote:
>> Following up on David's proposal for discussion on the topic of policy
>> for taking minutes (which was skipped at the general meeting), does
>> anyone have input on how we could standardize our meeting
>> minute-taking process?
>
> Thanks for putting some energy into this, Alex.
>
>> Here are some ideas:
>>
>> -I think minutes should always be formatted for- and posted on the
>> mailing list before anywhere else, in order to ensure proliferation of
>> readable plaintext copies
>
> I suggest we always post to wiki and copypasta into email at the same time.
>
>> -We should encourage scribes to not wait to post their unchecked
>> minutes if the checker is taking too long, as this seems to encourage
>> long delays in minute-posting
>
> I took this approach with the monthly minutes, and I'm going to
> suggest that it becomes general practice.  I sent the minutes for
> internal review to fg-staff@ and gave a 3-day window.  I said I'd
> incorporate any feedback I received in that time.
>
>> -Perhaps instead of a minutes checker, we could enlist more than one
>> person as a scribe where number of participants permits, and/or
>> advertise minutes-checking as a task open to all  of the meeting
>> attendees.
>
> I think taking notes while projected on a shared screen, like we did
> this week is good - as we can spot misunderstandings right away.
>
>> -We could and possibly summarize outcomes all together at the
>> beginning/end of the minutes, particularly policy decisions, dates of
>> meetings and other events, and topics for the meeting to follow
>> (things that need to be extracted and referred-to outside of the
>> minutes)
>
> Good suggestion.  I tried to do that this week with the "How you can
> Help FG" email.
>
>> -Would be nice to have consistent formatting for finalized minutes
>
> I always use the templates up on the wiki.  They are the "official" style
> guide.
>
> Luke


A few more Luke did not address:

On 4/18/09, afsmith <adventurecomplete at gmail.com> wrote:
> -We could standardize minutes posting subject line lingo, as in
> "draft" "checked" "final" "addendum", etcetera
>
> -We could standardize minute-writing lingo, as in "proposal"
> "discussion" "commit" "postponed" "agreed", and etcetera (and announce
> items correspondingly during meetings for clarity to the scribe)
>
> -Have the scribe sit next to or close to the facilitator, to ease
> asking for discussion pauses, item summary, etcetera
>
> -Should always ensure that meeting date and time, as well as
> attendance and all roles, are noted properly