Minute Taking Tips

From Education & Outreach

[Scribe or other] Before the Meeting

You can 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 (capitalization doesn't matter):

  • /invite zakim #eo
  • zakim, start meeting
  • Chair: Name
  • Regrets: Name, Name (get regrets from the attendance questionnaire)
  • Present: (this will clear the present list from the previous meeting)

When scribe is confirmed, enter:

  • Scribe: Name
  • ScribeNick: irc nickname

If someone additional scribes, enter:

  • ScribeNick+ irc nickname

[Scribe] During the Meeting

Enter the following commands in the #eo IRC channel.

  • At start of a new topic (from the Agenda):
    Topic: What the new topic is
    • If there is a sub-topic:
      Subtopic: What the subtopic is
  • To record what someone says, put their name or initials and a colon:
    Jane: strongly support the revised heading
  • To record a resolution:
    RESOLUTION: What the resolution is
  • Note:
    • You don't need to try to record every word 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

If you want to learn even more, see: Zakim IRC bot and Step 3: Take notes in IRC.

[Scribe or other] At the end of the meeting

If you want to draft minutes to check them and make corrections before you end the meeting, enter the following command in the #eo IRC channel:

  • rrsagent, draft minutes

To end the meeting, enter the following commands in the #eo IRC channel: 

Chairs will update https://www.w3.org/WAI/EO/wiki/EOWG_Meetings_2023

[Anyone] To edit the minutes

During the meeting or at the end of the meeting

You can make most edits via IRC with the "s"=substitute command and slash or pipe: 

s/wrong wording/corrected wording
s|wrong wording|corrected wording

This works for deleting text, with null between slashes: 

s/my dog ate my survey replies//
s|my dog ate my survey replies||

During the meeting, you can draft the minutes to check the changes (might take several seconds for the updated version to show up) 

 rrsagent, draft minutes v1

After the meeting

You can use above to make edits at the end of the meeting, before dismissing Zakim and RRSAgent — or you can invite them back into #eo to use them to make changes. Make sure you get "I have made the request to generate https://www.w3.org/2023/00/00-eo-plan-minutes.html"


If you want to make corrections to the minutes later:

  1. Download the HTML file
  2. Make edits
  3. E-mail the update minutes HTML file to : shawn@w3.org *and* public-eo-archive@w3.org and Shawn will post them
Retrieved from "https://www.w3.org/WAI/EO/wiki/index.php?title=Minute_Taking_Tips&oldid=39029"