Meeting Tips
To do:
- Incorporate example meeting minutes snippets
About a week before the meeting
Facilitator:
- Make sure you will be able to attend. If not, find someone to facilitate for you.
- Call for agenda items
Scribe:
- Make sure you will be able to attend. If not, find someone to scribe for you.
The day before the meeting
Facilitator:
- Create the agenda. (You are looking for agenda items. Organize them into a final agenda, grouping related items together and plugging into the general template):
- Review the previous meeting's notes
- Review which meetings happened that are likely to report
- Review the agenda
- Review other relevant things, like the RT queue, email posts, and the wiki
- Line up presenters for anything on the agenda that seems like a major topic. These people should be prepared to introduce the topic and answer questions about it.
Before the meeting
Facilitator:
- Incorporate any last minute items onto the agenda.
- Print out copies of the agenda. Usually three copies:
- one for the scribe,
- one for yourself,
- one to share with the group.
Scribe:
- Get a laptop or a paper and pen/pencil for taking notes
- Get a copy of the agenda from the facilitator
The Meeting
Once you know the tips, you may want to use the empty Meeting Template page as a start.
Call the meeting to order
Facilitator:
- Make sure there's a scribe taking attendance and ready to take notes
- Is everyone OK with the agenda? Any items missing?
Scribe:
- Record the name of the meeting and the date
- List everyone in attendance (for some meetings also list if they were late). Ask for people's names if you don't know them.
Check in
Facilitator:
- Ask how everyone's doing.
Scribe:
- This usually requires no notes be taken.
Committments from Previous Meeting
Facilitator:
- Go through each item and ask for a brief report.
- If committments pertain to regular agenda items, ask that discussion be put off until that item
Scribe:
- Record the status of each item
- Did it change owners?
- Is it finished?
- Is it a carryover? (If so, re-enter in the Future Committments section.)
Reports from Other Meeting
Facilitator:
- Go through each report and ask for a brief report.
- If committments pertain to regular agenda items, ask that discussion be put off until that item
- If issues come up that aren't on the agenda, add a new item to New Business section
Scribe:
- Record links to online minutes
- Record questions and answers
Old Business
Facilitator:
- Ask the presenter to present the topic
- Ask for questions to clarify the issue
- Is there any discussion?
- Are we ready for a formal proposal?
- If not
- Does there need to be any action?
- Does a smaller group need to hammer out a proposal?
- Can it be done on and email list and/or wiki?
- If we are ready for a proposal try to guide discussion towards making one.
- For each proposal:
- Does everyone understand it?
- What concerns do people have? How can it be changed to deal with those concerns
- If there appears to be agreement, make sure the proposal is in writing by askign the scribe to read it back
- Ask for any remaining concerns
- If there are none, state that we've reached a decision and have the scribe record it.
- If there are concerns:
- Can it be hammered out in a smaller group and decided at next meeting?
- Are there alternate proposals to consider?
Scribe:
- Record item names
- Key points from discussion
- Proposals (at least loose wording)
- Decisions -- Mark them clearly as decisions. Make sure the wording is accurate.
New Business
Facilitator:
- Same points at Old Business
Scribe:
- Same points at Old Business
Future Committments
Scribe:
- Record the item, its owner, and a time frame
Next Meeting
Scribe:
- Record next scribe
- Record next facilitator
- Record any reporters (i.e. to Council Meeting or Staff Meeting)
- Record next time and place of meeting
- Record any unfinished business for the next facilitator to include in the meeting