Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: meeting minutes

[Malcom Eva (malcolm]

At Springhill (UK) we made a decision early on that minutes would be regarded 
as a legal document, and therefore record ONLY decisions made.  I have found 
this very unsatisfactory for the reasons already cited in this discussion.  
There are five or six of us who put up our hands to take minutes, and the 
styles are quite different.

There are some who will indeed just record a decision ("Item No 3 was 
approved/rejected/no agreement reached"), which personally I find unhelpful, 
especially if I was not able to make the meeting. Others write more detailed 
accounts of the discussion, with the outcome embedded somewhere in the middle.  
My own approach is to briefly describe the issues and concerns raised in the 
discussion, and record the outcome and any actions on a separate line, in bold. 
 Others will write the minutes as decisions, with accompanying notes 
underneath.  None of us use people’s names when recording discussion and 
points; this would be unwelcome.   When I am the minute-taker I always refer 
the draft minutes to the facilitator first for approval before issuing them 
publicly.  When I am facilitating, I expect that to happen as well, and am 
sometimes rather taken aback when the minutes are published before I’ve had a 
chance to see if they match my take on the discussion.  

There is another rule that when an item is completed, the minute-taker reads 
out the minute that they are recording against that item. This is supposed to 
be just the outcome, but if the wording of a proposal has been amended in the 
course of a discussion, it can become more complicated and the pressure feels 
greater for them to get it right first time. Some people do this assiduously, 
while others are more relaxed, which can lead to disagreements later. 

I think detailed minutes are important for: a) people who had to miss the 
meeting but want to understand how it went, and who argued for what,b) the 
whole group when a topic comes back up in a couple of years' time, and people 
forget why something was accepted or rejected and c) future historians or 
researchers who can use them as a resource to understand the dynamics and 
progressions of the cohousing.  A verbatim transcript is a) prone to error, b) 
tedious to transcribe and c) embarrassing for someone who spoke up and now feel 
they made a silly point, or expressed themselves badly.  That is important, 
because there are several people who are naturally quiet, or shy, or just feel 
unsafe speaking up, especially if they are opposed to a majority view.  
Publishing their words afterwards can discourage them in future.

I agree with the idea of a standard format, but we don’t have a template here, 
so the different styles continue.  I think this is an area where we may set up 
a group to examine and improve our processes, both facilitation and 
minute-taking.

Malcolm
Springhill cohousing, Stroud, UK


On 11 Sep 2015, at 17:23, Lynn Nadeau / Maraiah <welcome [at] olympus.net> 
wrote:

> 
> 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
> 
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