Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: meeting minutes

[Lynn Nadeau / Maraiah (welcome]

I definitely agree with Sharon on the role of minutes taker. I do take 
sometimes-verbatim raw notes at the meeting, but in the sometimes lengthy 
process of turning those into minutes, I sift and sort, seeking to make as much 
sense as possible of what emerged. What was common ground? Where did opinions 
differ? (I've had people tell me they understood a debate better from my notes 
than when it was happening.) The subjective aspect of this process makes it all 
the more useful to get prepublication input from key attendees, lest I 
editorialize too much. 

I must also listen well in the meeting: more than once, over the years, I've 
accidentally erased the whole shebang and -- with due acknowledgement of the 
fact --- had to reconstruct the whole meeting from memory! Surprisingly, my 
editors found very little to add to my reconstruction. 

Back to Muriel's bottom line question: do you name names? Answer: sometimes. I 
don't need to note who pointed out that we needed to check with our insurance 
company. Or who asked for, and got, clarification on some aspect of the 
proposal. Names appear normally in the attendance list, as contact people, as 
members of a committee or task force reporting or asking for input. Lots of 
names in the raw notes, far fewer in the finished product. 

Why not name all names? If a concern is about the wisdom of doing something, 
for the group, then it becomes a matter for the group to resolve, not just to 
pacify the individual who raised it. As minutes are public documents, there may 
be cases where a person's sense of privacy might be violated by being named; on 
the other hand, someone might have a strong desire to be named: it's a 
balancing act. 

Like facilitation, or managing accounting, there are special skills involved in 
taking minutes. Random rotation of the job is not the best way to get a 
consistent and quality product. In cases where rotation is unavoidable, it 
becomes all the more useful to have a standard format.

Maraiah Lynn Nadeau, RoseWind Cohousing, Port Townsend WA
where we have an abundance of garden produce -- peppers, cucumbers, onions, 
tomatoes, beets, squash, carrots, potatoes......and my late-planted zinnias are 
adding a splash of color, amidst the toppling sunflowers.

On Sep 11, 2015, at 3:16 AM, cohousing-l-request [at] cohousing.org wrote:

> The secretary is not just a recorder, like a court reporter. The secretary is 
> an administrative position and their role in the organization is to remember 
> and apply decisions and related discussions, not just record them. The 
> secretary steers the flow and storage of information. 
> 
> I'm sure Muriel and Mariah do summarize and be sure the information is fully 
> communicated, but many laptop people don't. It?s just a verbatim transcript 
> which lacks the emphasis, rhythm, non-verbal communication, laughter, etc. 
> They often appear to be not even listening -- they just type. And this person 
> will not be able to remember or communicate the meaning of the meeting.
> 
> Sharon