Meeting Notes Template

Handbook Advanced Handbook
, , , ,
1

Meeting notes is a real art. It’s got to be organized + accessible + inclusive.

  • Facilitator role holders, you write the agenda in the meeting notes so people know what to expect
  • Secretary role holders, you record discussions and decisions so that they’re accessible to all
  • Coordinator role holders, you anticipate what needs to be on the agenda and meeting notes support you in figuring out what needs to come next

That’s why we’ve got a meeting notes template that will help!

Meeting Notes Template

Documentation Brainstorm

Why are we obsessive about taking notes

What are the accessibility features of the template?

  • We organize the sections of the agenda by heading.
  • We do not use tables because that is inaccessible to screen readers.

How to set up a new meeting agenda

How to take notes during a meeting

How to write a meeting report

How to archive an old notes document

What’s the meeting evaluation? Read the Closing section of “The sociocratic meeting format” or watch this “Meeting evaluation”

Todos

Change meeting notes template to break up table of contents and the actual notes (ask Far if she can do a version since she’s done it before!)
Write simplified meeting notes document
Evaluate Meeting Notes Template for people who use screen readers
Write documentation
Evaluate documentation
Report!

Related Projects
https://hub.youthpowercoalition.org/t/decide-where-to-host-meeting-reports-hub-or-slack/571/3

3

From @Sophie.Xu

  1. I have felt that a bit, too. Ideally, the notes wouldn’t take longer to load despite length. To combat this problem, I was thinking we could have separate notes docs for circles. Each note doc would be used for two months (or any other time period). Ex: #advocacy finishes their notes doc for Jan-Feb. They will then create a new notes doc for Mar-April. Everything will be labeled accordingly.
  2. I definitely feel that we inundate the notes docs with too much info such that we scare ppl off or intimidate them/deter them from reading key portions. (Ex: Our norms are generally long. There’s nothing wrong with that inherently, but we should be aware of how some people cannot process long bits of info accessibly.) I think we can (1) try to make our notes a bit brighter/colorful/thematic (similar to our #_meeting-reports), (2) make the meeting summaries more “distinct” or easy to find so that people really don’t have to read the notes themselves (maybe we need to compile all meeting reports at the top of the doc and under Table of Contents, and (3) have someone #internal-comms person) directly monitor how organized all aspects of our Google drive is, which ofc includes notes templates.
4

Idea: Put norms in a separate doc that the meeting notes template links to

Good idea, I think, but I’m not the best person to do this! Anyone for it?

I could point to how Google Docs have an outline feature that people can use to click on “Report”

Yup, I would say this is the Internal Comms responsibility + secretary role holders are responsible for each circle’s specific folder

5

Feedback from @Obrian

  1. The backlog is a very useful tool but I don’t see myself going into it and using it as often as I would like to. That may be because I would like to get a more in depth explanation of its use and how to use it.
  2. The agenda sheet is really organized and easy to use! The only thing is that the sheet can become overwhelming and also can slow down my computer when it has way too much information.
6

Ideas of what needs to be in the video by @thenickscants05

  • How to get on the notes
  • The different sections of the document
  • Process of creating a new meeting day’s meeting notes
  • How to use the backlog
  • How to write the meeting summary
  • How to manage windows

Ideas for the future

  • Have a process for recording the whole meeting
7

Feedback from Swanalakshmi:

The tables are hard to navigate for screenreaders, especially live during a meeting. The simple notes template is more accessible.

Numbering the agenda items helps with screenreader accessibility as well.