Cohousing-L Mailing List: RE: Decision log

[Rob Sandelin (floriferous]

A simple format for making a decision log is to mark up your already
existing (I hope) meeting notes. On a regular basis, take a yellow
highlighter and highlight the decision in the notes. Then keep these in a
notebook. That way you don't necessarily have to do the task  of recopying
the decision text out of the minutes.

There is a technique I have seen called action minutes, where the left
margin of the page is used to denote categories of interest, such as
discussion, decision, deferral. Using this system you can just scan the left
side of the page for the decision marker.

One more bit of advice on minutes. Once you put them in a notebook, number
the pages sequentially once. This way, if somebody borrows a page, they know
where to put it back, and you know which page is missing.

Yet another: There are plastic stick on tags, which are sold at office
supply stores which let you mark pages with a blue, green or red tag that
sticks outside the page. I have seen this used to mark decisions.

Some groups do keep two sets of notes, with one set dedicated to just
tracking decisions made. One good addition to the notes of a decision is to
include the reason why the decision was made. Years later, this will help
you understand what the intent was. This is especially important I think for
agreements about how you want to live together.

Rob Sandelin
Community Works! Group process workshops for social change organizations
www.ic.org/nica/cw1.htm



-----Original Message-----
From: cohousing-l [at] freedom2.mtn.org
[mailto:cohousing-l [at] freedom2.mtn.org]On Behalf Of Fred H Olson
Sent: Tuesday, January 30, 2001 12:19 PM
To: Multiple recipients of list
Subject: Re: Decision log


julia newhouse Chesapeake Cohousing, julia.newhouse [at] verizon.net
is the author of the message below but due to a problem
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Our cohousing group is working towards more structured meetings, and firming
up our administrative housekeeping.
It has been suggested that we begin implementing a decision log.

We would like suggestions and samples from those of you who are using it
with success. We're particularly interested in how it is formatted, what it
might look like, and how is it maintained. Please include any other comments
also. Thank you.
julia newhouse
Chesapeake Cohousing, Annapolis, MD