JOB AID: Notes Template for ECC Meetings

Authored by Kristin Thiel, Kerns NET

Note-taking Guidance, with Starter Template

1. Before meeting:

1. 1. Confirm with leadership what roles are useful to include with names in the attendance. (This is particularly important during a task force when attendees will have task force roles and regular roles outside the task force—which, or both, is most useful to include in the notes?)
   2. Confirm with leadership the planned organization of the notes’ Executive Summary (see template below).
   3. Make a new notes doc (from any preexisting templates the agency has or on your own; starter template below in this doc).
   4. If there’s an agenda you can access ahead of time, use that to structure the Detail section.
   5. Use an easy-to-read font such as Times New Roman or Arial and 12 pt. Single space. Bulleted lists.

1. 1. Log in to the meeting and start adding attendee names as they appear.

1. During meeting:

1. 1. Capture concepts–including decisions, to-dos, questions/parking lot matters, and kudos. You do not have to write every word or record who said what (unless that is important to understanding the content).

1. 1. OK to say, “For the notes, could you please clarify if there was a decision or follow-up in this conversation?”

1. As meeting ends:

1. 1. Copy and paste into the notes the chat transcript. (You won’t leave the whole thing in there, but it’ll be useful during your cleanup.)

1. During cleanup:

1. 1. Check spelling of names and complete roles, etc. Reference agency/task force and meeting invitation lists to do so.

1. 1. See if points made throughout the meeting can reasonably be combined by concept and do so. (It may be useful to leave record of each point where it happens in the agenda, but it’s often even more useful to place things like asides in with the concept’s main report-out.)

1. 1. Include key info from the chat transcript in the meeting minutes in the appropriate locations. Delete the rest of the copied chat transcript.
   2. Put key points from the meeting, color-coded, in the Executive Summary.

1. 1. Keep the minutes as brief as possible and clear.

Basic Meeting Notes Template

[instructions: file naming convention]

YYMMDD_GROUP/TASK FORCE NAME_MEETING NAME meeting notes

PUT STATUS OF NOTES HERE [e.g., in process, pending review, final]

GROUP/TASK FORCE NAME

NAME OF MEETING – Meeting Notes

DATE – TIME [instructions: use 24-hour convention]

[instructions: Leave this color key in the notes for the reader. The outward-facing colors chosen for this template are the fourth down in their color continuum; the first color is too bright for easy reading.]

Follow-Up: highlighted in yellow

Decisions and Key Reminders: highlighted in purple  

Questions and Parking Lot: highlighted in blue

Kudos: highlighted in gray

Attendees: [instructions: First Last (role, agency); First Last (role, agency); First Last (role, agency); First Last (role, agency); First Last (role, agency); First Last (role, agency); etc.]

Executive Summary [instructions: put key points from the meeting here; color-code in the Exec Summary only]

Detail [instructions: organizing by the agenda is a good idea]

[end of template]