JOB AID: Notes Template for ECC Meetings

Authored by Kristin Thiel, Kerns NET

Before Meeting

• Confirm with supervisor or meeting convener what roles/titles are useful to include with names in attendance. This is particularly important during an activation when attendees will have task force roles and regular roles outside the task force (e.g. Ronnie Mompellier's title outside of the activation is "Duty Officer", but in the context of the response she is "BES Liaison"). So, which title/role, or both, should be included in the notes?
• Confirm with supervisor the planned organization of the Executive Summary for the notes (see template below).
• Create a new notes document for the meeting: either from a preexisting template if the agency has one, or the starter template below).
• If an agenda is available ahead of the meeting, use that to structure the Detail section.
• Request a list of invitees from a supervisor. That list will help clarify name spellings later and make it easier to provide a complete list of attendees.
• Use a font that is easy to read for screen. Preferred is Arial 12 pt. Use single spacing and bulleted lists.

During Meeting

• Log into the meeting and add attendee names as they appear.

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]