Note-taking Practices for Meetings
April 20, 2015 11:54 AM Subscribe
I've mostly worked in organizations without frequent meetings or the need for formal minutes. I'm curious about how this works in other types of offices. Do people generally take notes on their phones or tablets during meetings or are those types of gadgets even allowed? Is there a designated note-taker or stenographer? I prefer taking notes on paper but I'm curious about how technology is changing expectations in this regard. Are there any particular apps that are ideal for taking minutes?
I think I've seen every permutation of this. I have definitely be in some organizations that did everything but banned technology in some meetings as a way to make people focus. Others are completely laissez faire about things.
As for who takes notes, I've seen regular examples of a.) no one takes notes b.) the person calling the meeting takes notes c.) the formal project manager takes notes d.) a volunteer is asked to take notes. Most of the time if a meeting relates to a formal project and the PM is present they will take notes. Otherwise I usually see no notes or the leader of the meeting will take notes. If the meeting is between a bunch of peers and record keeping is needed because the topic is so complicated than the volunteer approach is what I usually see.
For specialized software, I most often see OneNote since it integrates with the meeting calendar entry and facilitates documenting who showed up.
posted by mmascolino at 12:05 PM on April 20, 2015
As for who takes notes, I've seen regular examples of a.) no one takes notes b.) the person calling the meeting takes notes c.) the formal project manager takes notes d.) a volunteer is asked to take notes. Most of the time if a meeting relates to a formal project and the PM is present they will take notes. Otherwise I usually see no notes or the leader of the meeting will take notes. If the meeting is between a bunch of peers and record keeping is needed because the topic is so complicated than the volunteer approach is what I usually see.
For specialized software, I most often see OneNote since it integrates with the meeting calendar entry and facilitates documenting who showed up.
posted by mmascolino at 12:05 PM on April 20, 2015
I'm a project manager and take notes for our weekly group meetings. I just use pen and paper during the meeting, using last weeks meeting minutes to write the notes, and then summarize in Word for distribution. At our company the minutes are not meant to be a transcript of everything said and details but are a very concise summary of what was talked about and Action Items. We develop a product so I have headers: materials, verification testing, engineering support, marketing support, action items (name of individual responsible) etc. I do add a lot of details in my own notes, though.
posted by waving at 12:06 PM on April 20, 2015 [1 favorite]
posted by waving at 12:06 PM on April 20, 2015 [1 favorite]
In my past jobs it has varied between the jobs and the meetings.
If it's a formal meeting for capturing some kind of knowledge, then someone will be designated to take notes and capture that knowledge, usually a subject matter expert of some kind. If it's more of a 'so, what are we going to do about this problem?' meeting, then usually whoever called it will take some simple notes, mainly about the actual conclusion or any action items that arise. If it's a regular status meeting, someone is designated to take notes and action items, usually more of an admin person or departmental low person on the totem pole.
In most meetings, people brought their own laptops (or occasionally paper notebooks) if they expected to have to take notes for their own recollection or other purposes. Often we had our laptops with our own versions of documents under discussion or working files anyway.
No one really used their phone for this unless it was a one-off note about an action item and they weren't otherwise prepared to take notes. Phones in meetings are generally a distraction to be avoided.
posted by jacquilynne at 12:35 PM on April 20, 2015
If it's a formal meeting for capturing some kind of knowledge, then someone will be designated to take notes and capture that knowledge, usually a subject matter expert of some kind. If it's more of a 'so, what are we going to do about this problem?' meeting, then usually whoever called it will take some simple notes, mainly about the actual conclusion or any action items that arise. If it's a regular status meeting, someone is designated to take notes and action items, usually more of an admin person or departmental low person on the totem pole.
In most meetings, people brought their own laptops (or occasionally paper notebooks) if they expected to have to take notes for their own recollection or other purposes. Often we had our laptops with our own versions of documents under discussion or working files anyway.
No one really used their phone for this unless it was a one-off note about an action item and they weren't otherwise prepared to take notes. Phones in meetings are generally a distraction to be avoided.
posted by jacquilynne at 12:35 PM on April 20, 2015
I take a lot of notes in my organization, and the methods depend on the needs of each particular meeting.
Sometimes is may be necessary to preserve the entire discussion so the thread of it can be followed; in that case I will absolutely bring a laptop so that I can type. The product is often as close to a word-for-word transcription as I can manage. This is much less time consuming than recording or writing long hand and typing later.
More often we only need track decisions, major points, or next steps, in which case paper notes might be simpler. If it's a particularly complex meeting I might still try to type verbatim notes and then summarize after before sharing out. It's often the case that we need to remember exactly what someone said, and if no one is tracking that it just gets lost.
Sometimes it works to have a scribe taking notes on chart paper or a white board visible to all the participants. The group can edit the notes themselves as the meeting progresses, and afterwards its easy to pass the task of typing up the result to any available staff person or admin.
Board of Directors meetings are catalogued in formal meeting minutes. Our formal minutes are basically useless in terms of recording what was discussed, so there are often several staff sitting on the sidelines of these meetings trying to track important points in their own hand written notes.
As a side note, it is a blessing and a curse to be Good at Taking Notes, because I always get asked to do this. It takes a particular mind to effectively sum up a sprawling discussion into the right set of bullet points.
posted by cubby at 12:58 PM on April 20, 2015
Sometimes is may be necessary to preserve the entire discussion so the thread of it can be followed; in that case I will absolutely bring a laptop so that I can type. The product is often as close to a word-for-word transcription as I can manage. This is much less time consuming than recording or writing long hand and typing later.
More often we only need track decisions, major points, or next steps, in which case paper notes might be simpler. If it's a particularly complex meeting I might still try to type verbatim notes and then summarize after before sharing out. It's often the case that we need to remember exactly what someone said, and if no one is tracking that it just gets lost.
Sometimes it works to have a scribe taking notes on chart paper or a white board visible to all the participants. The group can edit the notes themselves as the meeting progresses, and afterwards its easy to pass the task of typing up the result to any available staff person or admin.
Board of Directors meetings are catalogued in formal meeting minutes. Our formal minutes are basically useless in terms of recording what was discussed, so there are often several staff sitting on the sidelines of these meetings trying to track important points in their own hand written notes.
As a side note, it is a blessing and a curse to be Good at Taking Notes, because I always get asked to do this. It takes a particular mind to effectively sum up a sprawling discussion into the right set of bullet points.
posted by cubby at 12:58 PM on April 20, 2015
In my academic life thus far, several of us take notes at once, and this turns out to be beneficial later. We often email them to each other later, as email is searchable.
Globally speaking, very often the designated note-taker or secretary ends up being a woman. It's a stereotyped example of gendered expectations, and sexism. I don't know you, and I don't mean to imply anything about you, so this is general, not personal, advice; but this situation is a great opportunity to be aware of gender biases of groups. Please be correspondingly careful around the requests for who takes notes, and even accepting volunteers to do so (women may see this as their inherent role, for an example of internalized gender bias).
posted by Dashy at 1:24 PM on April 20, 2015 [2 favorites]
Globally speaking, very often the designated note-taker or secretary ends up being a woman. It's a stereotyped example of gendered expectations, and sexism. I don't know you, and I don't mean to imply anything about you, so this is general, not personal, advice; but this situation is a great opportunity to be aware of gender biases of groups. Please be correspondingly careful around the requests for who takes notes, and even accepting volunteers to do so (women may see this as their inherent role, for an example of internalized gender bias).
posted by Dashy at 1:24 PM on April 20, 2015 [2 favorites]
The last place I worked had lots of monthly meetings and generally a designated minutes taker (called the secretary in the notes). As the only woman and the administrative person it became my job to do this in multiple meetings. Unfortunately I was not ever good at doing this. I didn't get better over time. At one point I tried recording the meetings and then typing the notes that way. Miserable. My brain isn't wired for it and I hated it.This is one reason why I never want to do administrative work again.
posted by mokeydraws at 2:36 PM on April 20, 2015 [1 favorite]
posted by mokeydraws at 2:36 PM on April 20, 2015 [1 favorite]
I'm the secretary on a volunteer board I serve on, and I take notes at our meetings. I am usually trying to capture the why of a decision (or even non-decision) as well as the outcome, so there's a lot of typing, and it's not easy to balance my own participation in the discussion with note-taking.
I use a markdown text editor (NValt) on a Mac. It's good enough—I can certainly capture text much, much faster typing than writing, and I get a useful amount of formatting for almost no extra work. This particular app also makes it really easy for me to refer to notes from previous meetings. I know there are specialized minute-taking apps, but I haven't bothered. Typically at these meetings, one or two other people will also have laptops out, and will be executing a few of their action items as we go. Sometimes we can put an issue to bed entirely before the meeting is over.
I've also been in meetings where a note-taker creates a gDoc, invites everyone in the meeting to edit it, and projects it on a big screen. This is actually pretty slick, and can involve people who are not physically present. It can also invite a certain amount of jackassery, so you need to be OK with that.
posted by adamrice at 4:06 PM on April 20, 2015
I use a markdown text editor (NValt) on a Mac. It's good enough—I can certainly capture text much, much faster typing than writing, and I get a useful amount of formatting for almost no extra work. This particular app also makes it really easy for me to refer to notes from previous meetings. I know there are specialized minute-taking apps, but I haven't bothered. Typically at these meetings, one or two other people will also have laptops out, and will be executing a few of their action items as we go. Sometimes we can put an issue to bed entirely before the meeting is over.
I've also been in meetings where a note-taker creates a gDoc, invites everyone in the meeting to edit it, and projects it on a big screen. This is actually pretty slick, and can involve people who are not physically present. It can also invite a certain amount of jackassery, so you need to be OK with that.
posted by adamrice at 4:06 PM on April 20, 2015
In my office, one of our team members is the designated note taker for meetings. He scribbles it all down with pen and paper (he says it's faster and more flexible than typing for him).
When he distributes the typed-up minutes, the discussion and action items/next steps are clearly distinct. This makes it easy to skim the minutes and see what should have been done as a result of that meeting.
posted by cadge at 8:51 PM on April 20, 2015
When he distributes the typed-up minutes, the discussion and action items/next steps are clearly distinct. This makes it easy to skim the minutes and see what should have been done as a result of that meeting.
posted by cadge at 8:51 PM on April 20, 2015
It's different for 3 different types of meetings I go to. Most meetings, everyone's responsible to take whatever notes they want to have. If I have an action item, I'll write it down. If someone else has one deliverable to me, I'll write that down too so I don't forget who to ask and when.
For project status meetings, usually the assumed status is already typed up and emailed out to everyone. At the meeting, it's projected on the screen. When your turn comes up, it's just "as shown" or say what changes. It's very fast, unless an argument breaks out. The person running the show makes the notes right on screen. Edited version emailed out again after the meeting.
For formal meetings that need minutes, like committees with bylaws, etc., usually someone will take pen and paper notes, just the actions taken. [person] spoke about [topic]. Not what they said. Motion made for [thing]. Vote passed.
posted by ctmf at 10:18 PM on April 20, 2015
For project status meetings, usually the assumed status is already typed up and emailed out to everyone. At the meeting, it's projected on the screen. When your turn comes up, it's just "as shown" or say what changes. It's very fast, unless an argument breaks out. The person running the show makes the notes right on screen. Edited version emailed out again after the meeting.
For formal meetings that need minutes, like committees with bylaws, etc., usually someone will take pen and paper notes, just the actions taken. [person] spoke about [topic]. Not what they said. Motion made for [thing]. Vote passed.
posted by ctmf at 10:18 PM on April 20, 2015
Assuming you're free to choose your method, you might find this useful for deciding.
posted by whoiam at 10:35 PM on April 20, 2015
posted by whoiam at 10:35 PM on April 20, 2015
We normally have somebody minuting stuff, but generally the decisions, including rationale if required, and action points, not every word. We also do this for a lot of calls. I normally a just type them into the agenda in a different colour/use onenote and tidy up to circulate. When using onenote we also often share the notebook and various people can take notes at the same time. This is particularly useful if you want to demonstrate easily who participated as their minutes can be easily attributed. I try to work paperless as much as possible because notes on paper are invariably not with me when I wish to refer to them.
posted by koahiatamadl at 10:37 AM on April 21, 2015
posted by koahiatamadl at 10:37 AM on April 21, 2015
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posted by billiebee at 12:03 PM on April 20, 2015