Subject: RE: A concept resurrected(?) - WG secretary?

From: [email-masked]
Date: Mon, 13 Oct 2003 20:41:13 +0300

Hi Leslie,

> So -- if you had to live with the fact that "whatever happened
> in the room, it doesn't count if it isn't in the minutes", what
> problems do you have to creating such minutes, and how can
> we solve them?

The minutes of my WG are not stellar by any stretch of the
word.  However, noone has ever complained.  I don't think
that is a good thing, though.  It might be helpful if my
AD would repremand me when the minutes are inadequate.  It
would be good for folks on the mailing list to complain
if they cannot make heads or tails of the minutes.  If these
types of things do not happen, then its easy to see
why WG chairs just go with the flow.

John

---

From: Leslie Daigle <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 13 Oct 2003 13:54:01 -0400

That's a really good point.  My complaints with my WG's
minutes usually happened sometime after the fact -- when
I was trying to back up a point later on the mailing
list, but couldn't reference anything solid in the meeting
minutes :-) (even though I had my mental version of what
had been relevant).

Perhaps a few key things:

	. define the value of minutes in terms of "whatever
	  happened..." and write that in WG procedures

	. make it clear that the community needs and wants
	  these things, most often with some latency from the
	  meeting itself

	. have someone who wasn't at the meeting review the
	  early draft of the minutes to see what they 
	  communicate without context

Leslie.

-- 

-------------------------------------------------------------------
"Reality:
     Yours to discover."
                                -- ThinkingCat
Leslie Daigle
[email-masked]
-------------------------------------------------------------------

---

From: "Randy Presuhn" <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 13 Oct 2003 11:12:55 -0700

Hi -

> From: "Leslie Daigle" <[email-masked]>
> To: <[email-masked]>
> Cc: <[email-masked]>
> Sent: Monday, October 13, 2003 10:54 AM
> Subject: Re: A concept resurrected(?) - WG secretary?
...

>   happened..." and write that in WG procedures
...

I like to use minutes as a way of recording action items,
including consensus calls to be verified on the mailing list.
As part of WG session wrap-up, I have the minute-taker(s)
review the list to ensure that all the items that folks in the
room have signed up for (or otherwise consider important)
are included.  I don't know whether anyone else likes it, but
I've found it useful both as a chair and as a participant.

Randy