In meetings, do you take your own notes or rely on the minutes?

[UnquietDad]

Thought it would be interesting to ask this as it is a side-discussion which has come out of the debate on handwriting in the Crafts thread.

If you work or have worked in an office environment, and you have an appointed admin person to do the minutes - do you sit there and take your own notes as well?

Because it seems some people do, and I have never known this.

I don't mean the odd jotting about an action point or meeting time particular to me which can go in my diary. I mean notes of what other people have said, for your own records.

Of course then there is the other point from the Crafts thread, which is whether you feel the need to write everything, or can do the one word here and there. Personally I find that one of the issues with many of the official minute takers is that they try and capture everything, which in general is not what is required. Perhaps the art of writing badly makes you better at spotting key points and letting the rest go by. Very few meetings require transcripts after all (and those that do are usually recorded in any case).
I like minutes that say things like "there was a discussion and it was decided that" rather than pages of x was arsy and then y was domineering and then z said etc etc. Really I couldn't care less, except if something was actually decided.

The world would be so much better if people had fewer "meetings". They're mostly a waste of time.

If you want to avoid doing any work, arrange a meeting.

I work in aerospace and they are notorious for having meetings about every single bloody thing. Thankfully I now work for a forward-thinking company and the meeting culture is definitely being phased out.

Take my own notes always, I would say about 50% of the meetings I attend are minuted, however the person who takes the minutes does not necessarily have a clue what's going on so it is necessary to take own notes. It is also good to have a record of what was discussed when in one place.

I would always make a list of the stuff I'm supposed to do, as usually it's stuff that needs doing "yesterday". And then I have to go away and write it all down again in my diary, allocating it a specific time to do. And then I do it. And then I like to tick it all off.

With our meetings, the minutes usually turn up about three weeks later. Long after you were supposed to do the thing you had to do iuswim.

Nope, why keep a dog and bark yourself? The only notes I ever take are things that apply to me or the team directly, things that need discussion but this isn't the correct venue and on occasion my shopping list for that evening

dxx

One of the main aspects of my work is minuting meetings which can often be quite contentious (not just team meetings).

I notice that a few of the participants will take notes, but only as to their own action points and date of next meeting.

Back to the discussion which this emanated from as to whether people's writing can be read by others - I take notes of meetings where I am the minute secretary in shorthand which I can read and others can't. If I am attending a meeting on my own behalf or at college then I write my notes in long hand and cannot read them at all 3 days later!!

Oh, and BTW Dawntigga - how nice to see that you consider your administrative staff to be dogs . I hope I don't come into contact with you in RL.

take my own notes - partly because I just don't retain information unless I've written it down. Working as a writer for the past 20 years has done something funny to my brain! But also because the formal minutes are sometimes not detailed enough.

I note down things I need to action/dates I need to put in my diary but mostly I just doodle!!! Such a pro!

I take my own notes of the things that are interesting but mainly to help me listen / stay awake. I also find that minuting can be quite a tricky and unappreciated skill and have had quite a few new staff now who I have had to train in it with the help of the Plain English campaign etc. so I keep notes in case the official minuter needs help afterwards with e.g. professional jargon, people's names and so on.

actually bradsmissus I read something recently about doodling aiding listening skills so I think you can feel perfectly professional about doing so.

Excellent! Sometimes I have two words of notes in a whole page of doodle!

FFS appledumpling it's a saying!

Sensitive much?

dxx