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EOWG Minuting Instructions

Contents

1. Before the Meeting
2. During the Meeting
   • At the end of the meeting
3. After the Meeting: Editing Draft Minutes

Before the Meeting

Scribes, please do this several minutes before the start of the meeting. I think you can do this up to 1 hour before the scheduled meeting time.

Enter the following commands in the #eo IRC channel:

• trackbot, start meeting
• Scribe: YourName
• ScribeNick: your irc nickname
• Chair: Name
• Regrets: Name, Name (get regrets from the attendance questionnaire list those who indicated "Cannot participate" or "Maybe cannot participate")

Enter the agenda items with links (can use short topic name instead of long agenda description), e.g.:

• agenda+ Action item update http://www.w3.org/WAI/EO/track/actions/open?sort=owner

During the Meeting

Enter the following commands in the #eo IRC channel.

• To indicate who is at the meeting:
  Present: Name, Name, Name
  To add names:
  Present+ Name
• To get the first agenda topic input already (as above):
  Zakim, take up agendum 1
  To get the next agenda topic:
  Zakim, take up next agendum
• To add a topic not already entered as an agenda item:
  Topic: What the new topic is
• To record what someone says, put their name or initials and a colon:
  Jane: strongly support the revised heading
• To record an action (remember the action will be listed out of context so be specific):
  ACTION: Shawn to record actions clearly
• What to record:
  • You don't need to record everything that it said, just the "jist" of the relevant comments
  • Make sure to record final decisions carefully
  • Feel free to ask for clarifications of who is speaking, for important things to be repeated, for someone to scribe their own thoughts (if they are in IRC), or for the meeting to pause momentarily so you can catch up with scribing
  • ...

For more info, see: IRC Trackbot commands and Zakim IRC bot.

After the Meeting: Editing Draft Minutes

• Copy the agenda items from http://www.w3.org/WAI/EO/Overview#agenda and paste it at the top of the minutes under the <h1>, see example. Make sure to markup up the lists and include the links.
• Review the minutes, and:
  • Add a brief summary of key decisions and discussions, e.g., see 4 May 2012. This is particularly useful for people who were not able to attend the meeting.
  • Add info as needed for clarification, e.g., documents that were referrred to but did not get in the minutes. [you can add information in brackets] However, be careful not to add content that was not discussed in the teleconference.Especially make sure that the action items at the end make sense out of context.
  • Remove "chatter" not important for later readers, e.g., things like "this should be a short meeting"... Delete extraneous material; e.g., side comments about dogs barking upstairs, people being out sick, etc.
  • Check that important words aren't missing; e.g., missing "not" in the sentence "I do like that solution"
• Delete:
  • <h1>- DRAFT -</h1>
  • "See also: IRC log."
• Put the date in with the <h1> (instead of as an <h2>)
• Confirm that the <title> got set. If it says "SV_MEETING_TITLE", change that to "EOWG"
• Confirm that the major agenda topics are listed in the Contents section, marked up as <h2>, and linked to the topics below. Add other headings (e.g., <h3>) as appropriate to help group the information and facilitate skimming for specific sub-topics.
• If there are no action items, add "[none]" to the link in the Contents section:
  Summary of Action Items [none]
• Skim the "Scribe.perl diagnostic output" section, see if you need to make any edits based on the notes, and delete it.
• If someone else is cleanning up the minutes besides the scribe, you can add your name, e.g,:
  Scribe: Bob, cleanup: Sue
• Validate the HTML.
• Email the minutes to Shawn at shawn@w3.org
• Thanks!