I would like to add this point: Meeting notes should be done when the meeting is done. Not later.
Some colleagues of mine have this “style” to do the meeting minutes one or two days later and fix all typos and stuff. Unfortunately, I might have another meeting two hours later where I would like to reference the meeting notes but they are not available yet. In remote meeting I can do screenshots at least.
It is nearly impossible if moderator and scribe are the same person because you have to type live and correctly while moderating the discussion. I do it in a regular bi-weekly meeting and it is stressful. Tried to get some participant to moderate or scribe but it never worked out so far. The burden is given back to the participant to some degree that have to wait in silence occasionally until I’m finished typing.
It is also really hard if the scribe is non-technical and does not really understand the topic. I have been in such meetings and we ended up dictating or even spelling words. It might work with a shared document and the right culture where a non-technical person does most of the documentation but the experts can fix all errors immediately and without interrupting the discussion. I’m a big fan of shared documents but I still haven’t had the opportunity to use them regularly.
When I moderate a meeting, the meeting notes are typed live. At the end I show them and ask if anything is wrong or missing. If there is nothing to fix, then I save the document and the meeting is done. It is a nice closing ritual because if the documentation is done, it is clear that the official talking is done.
Offtopic comment: I like the margin notes. I find they aren’t distracting when you’re just reading the text, and you can just glance at them when you want to, then carry on reading, instead of clicking a link to go to a footnote, then clicking to get back to where you were (which often won’t take you back to exactly where you were, but will instead put the line with the footnote at the top of the window). I think I even prefer them to “hover to show” footnotes, again because no interaction is required.
Very interesting point about asynchronous conversation on a shared document. I am definitely on the market for decent tools here. I can’t find a tool that I’m happy with.
I’ve tried
google docs (and suite)
MS word online
quip
confluence
VS code
ms whiteboard
google colab
markdown in git
but all fall short one way or another. poor collaborative edits, or lack of diagrams or image management, or even comments are either broken or a pain to use. I whish for a collaborative orgmode, but I’d be happy to settle with markdown with latex equations and comments. Closest I’ve used was quip, although it is not missing his share of problems. Does anyone has other suggestions?
If you work in a G Suite environment, Coda.io is pretty great. In the last few weeks they have added support for non-Google logins so you don’t need to use G Suite or Gmail to authenticate.
I would like to add this point: Meeting notes should be done when the meeting is done. Not later.
Some colleagues of mine have this “style” to do the meeting minutes one or two days later and fix all typos and stuff. Unfortunately, I might have another meeting two hours later where I would like to reference the meeting notes but they are not available yet. In remote meeting I can do screenshots at least.
It is nearly impossible if moderator and scribe are the same person because you have to type live and correctly while moderating the discussion. I do it in a regular bi-weekly meeting and it is stressful. Tried to get some participant to moderate or scribe but it never worked out so far. The burden is given back to the participant to some degree that have to wait in silence occasionally until I’m finished typing.
It is also really hard if the scribe is non-technical and does not really understand the topic. I have been in such meetings and we ended up dictating or even spelling words. It might work with a shared document and the right culture where a non-technical person does most of the documentation but the experts can fix all errors immediately and without interrupting the discussion. I’m a big fan of shared documents but I still haven’t had the opportunity to use them regularly.
When I moderate a meeting, the meeting notes are typed live. At the end I show them and ask if anything is wrong or missing. If there is nothing to fix, then I save the document and the meeting is done. It is a nice closing ritual because if the documentation is done, it is clear that the official talking is done.
Mostly agree, but not assertive enough.
Published agenda before the meeting (preferably attached to the invites) is a requirement,.
I like the shared notes document. Nice touch for remote meetings, and even in person meetings.
Every meeting
shouldmust result in published action item, with assignments.Offtopic comment: I like the margin notes. I find they aren’t distracting when you’re just reading the text, and you can just glance at them when you want to, then carry on reading, instead of clicking a link to go to a footnote, then clicking to get back to where you were (which often won’t take you back to exactly where you were, but will instead put the line with the footnote at the top of the window). I think I even prefer them to “hover to show” footnotes, again because no interaction is required.
Very interesting point about asynchronous conversation on a shared document. I am definitely on the market for decent tools here. I can’t find a tool that I’m happy with. I’ve tried
but all fall short one way or another. poor collaborative edits, or lack of diagrams or image management, or even comments are either broken or a pain to use. I whish for a collaborative orgmode, but I’d be happy to settle with markdown with latex equations and comments. Closest I’ve used was quip, although it is not missing his share of problems. Does anyone has other suggestions?
If you work in a G Suite environment, Coda.io is pretty great. In the last few weeks they have added support for non-Google logins so you don’t need to use G Suite or Gmail to authenticate.
That looks very very interesting, also has latex math formulas!! thanks!