Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: a question about meeting minutes

[Elizabeth Magill (pastorlizm]

I do not think recording names is generally helpful, but agree that it is 
sometimes good to know if the concern is specific to the home (it'll hide my 
view of the field) or if it is a concern that can be addressed by talking to 
the person (it makes me afraid you'll hate my cat).

Sometimes I wish I knew who were the wild outlyers in a discussion.

For orange (object but don't block) cards we always (where always is "as best 
we can") record who orange carded and what their reasons were. 

We've *tried* to improve the action items. "Sue will do this" rather than "this 
will be done".

When people ramble there is plenty of time to make great summaries, which for 
me are the more valuable minutes. If everyone is on topic I often end up with 
close to verbatim notes.

At Mosaic in general we accept the notes that are provided by the people who 
volunteer to do it. Some are Superb, they all are fine. We do post decisions at 
the top of the minutes, and we have a decision log for doing research. 

But holy moly sometimes if you want to go back to an old issue all we can 
really tell from the notes is that we didn't agree---but not often can we tell 
what were the emotional underpinnings or even the primary arguments on either 
side. On the other hand, today is a new day and I think we'd have to re-feel 
those emotions anyway to get to a new consensus.

-Liz
(The Rev.) Elizabeth M. Magill
www.ecclesiaministriesmission.org
www.mosaic-commons.org
508-450-0431




On Sep 9, 2015, at 12:19 PM, R Philip Dowds <rpdowds [at] comcast.net> wrote:

> 
> And I agree with Sharon here.  The outcome or decision is often nuanced, 
> complex or contingent.  Unless the decision is succinct and inescapably clear 
> — “Approved.”  “No.” Or some such — I find it useful for the recording 
> secretary to read back some literal words:  “Here is how I am recording our 
> decision … <read the words> …”  It should be no surprise that this approach, 
> even when well executed, can precipitate more debate.
> 
> Thanks,
> Philip Dowds
> Cornerstone Village Cohousing
> Cambridge, MA
> 
>> On Sep 9, 2015, at 11:02 AM, Sharon Villines <sharon [at] 
>> sharonvillines.com> wrote:
>> 
>> I think the minutes should give a sense of the discussion — the issues — and 
>> the outcome. Insisting on recording a clear outcome also pushes the group to 
>> have an outcome — not just wander on to the next topic. This is partly the 
>> job of the person leading the meeting but secretaries can be greatly helpful 
>> in this because they have to write it down.
> 
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