Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: Notetaker's Checklist

[John Gear (catalyst]

>I was wondering, John, if you would consider putting together a Scribe's or
>Notetaker's Checklist like the Facilitator's Checklist that Rob S. compiled. 
>I, for one, would find that very useful and I'd guess that others would as
>well based on the discussion so far.
>Thank you,
>
>*   Mac Thomson                         San Juan Cohousing
>*   Mac [at] HappyValley.com           Durango, Colorado

Mac,

I'm afraid you've sort of put me in a spot here.  The course I teach was
written by another consultant who is now full-time in another career as a
minister (which is why he licenses his courses to me).  My license agreement
is that I *not* give out his material without paying his royalty, which
seems fair enough to me.  I hope to have similar courses someday.

But it means I don't know how to respond to your request.  Clearly I can't
ethically post this material to the list.  And practically, no, there's not
*a* scribe's checklist; there's many, and the one to use depends on the
purpose of the meeting, the attendees, the kind of group etc.

What I *can* say is what I had figured out on my own as the secretary for my
community association:  A thorough review of all the past minutes (or as
many as you can stand) should reveal patterns in the information that, on
reflection, can be used to create agendas that become minutes without too
much work and help guide the notetaker to make sure key info gets recorded.
That's gonna be different for each group and could probably be a useful
springboard for some group talk about how you do meetings ... an analysis of
your past practice might reveal some areas where you don't feel you've been
getting the best results from the time spent.

*Do* remember that meetings have different purposes.  When I talk to
business organizations, I emphasize the aspect of meetings about getting
things done--and I deemphasize other aspects that also have validity.  For a
cohousing group, the "other" aspects of meetings (such as group cohesion,
everyone being heard) probably play a much more important role--although
getting things done is still nice :^) 

But this is conjecture on my part; I'm just a cohousing wannabe right now in
an apt. complex *right next to* a huge, characterless, pedestrian-hostile
suburban mall.  Gaaaackk! :^(

Anyway, sorry to give such a wishy-washy reply to your request but I think
that's all I can do.  But, as I suggested before, just paying attention to
this part of things is the breakthrough!  Getting people to pay attention to
how the corporate memory banks get filled and organized is a big step in the
right direction.

Good luck,

John Gear