Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: meeting minutes

[Sharon Villines (sharon]

> On Sep 10, 2015, at 5:02 PM, Diana Carroll <dianaecarroll [at] gmail.com> 
> wrote:
> 
> That doesn't really seem relevant to me. The goal of college note taking is
> to enhance the understanding of the note taker herself. The goal of minute
> taking is for the benefit of others. What enhances one's own learning
> process is different than what helps others who couldn't be there
> understand what they missed.

But how good are the minutes if they don’t communicate the whole context of the 
room? The meaning of the words. Just a transcript doesn’t do that. 

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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Sharon Villines
Takoma Village Cohousing, Washington DC
http://www.takomavillage.org