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

[Luke Closs]

Hi Alex,

Is there a particular outcome you'd like from this topic, or you just want
general discussion?  If it's the former, I suggest you create a proposal for
the meeting.  (eg: I propose that these the following 8 things become
official guidelines or process to be followed by our organization.  <magic 8
things here>)

One thing I'd like to see is a Minutes Checker Checklist.  Ifny usually
reviews the monthly minutes, and she has a mental checklist of things she
checks.  We should get that out of her head.  Now may be a good time.

Cheers,
Luke


On Sun, Apr 26, 2009 at 10:58 AM, afsmith <adventurecomplete at gmail.com>wrote:

> 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
>
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