Write this down - thoughts on better notes from public meetings

Taking notes at a public meeting or workshop can be intensely frustrating. You stand, sharpie in hand, and attempt to capture a free flowing and fast moving discussion.

Why are you even standing there? The purpose of taking notes on a big sheet of butcher paper is to demonstrate that what is said actually matters - but if you write large enough for people to read, the letters are too big to fit anything approaching a complete summary. Writing small means that nobody around the table can see what you’re doing - so you might as well sit down and use a notebook. If the conversation is at all non-linear, you’re going to struggle to fit everything onto the pages. If you get involved in the discussion, it’s hard to take good notes. And sometimes, the best points get missed because you’re still writing down the previous contribution in giant caps.

Taking notes at meetings is essential - otherwise, why have the consultation at all- and yet…  time for another meeting, time to get out the giant pads.

Maybe there are some better ways, high-tech or maybe low-tech but smarter… here are a few thoughts (spurred by one too many recent butcher paper experiences).

• Project it. Using a laptop and projector makes it easy to take detailed notes - you can reasonably approach a transcription, or a well-organized set of bullet points with sub-headings. If the conversation jumps around, so can you. You can zoom in and out, so the table can focus on a few key points or see that you’re capturing everything.
• Make it a public record Using a projector with etherpad (happily, back online) means that others can follow along at home, or see your notes later. You actually can’t delete anything from an etherpad, so once you put it down, it’s there for good. The combination of permanence and visibility makes for good note taking, where you want to show how important everything is.
• Be explicit - I’m going to use this laptop to take notes. You can’t all see the screen, but I’ll write down everything that gets said, tell me if you want something specific noted down. Maybe you don’t need a projector at all.
• Print notes. If projecting is difficult, make printed copies of notes available. One fast printer can churn out b&w prints in no time, so you can have tangible evidence of the process of note taking in circulation by the end of the session.
• Afterwards, email notes to anyone who wants a copy - not quite as good as taking notes.
• Make them available on the project’s google group or similar, where copies of all materials are freely available (your project has some kind of web presence, right? No? that’s another discussion….)
• Use hot potato or another twitterish aggregator - and let someone else’s tools pull all the information together for you.
• Downsides to projectors or laptops are cost and complexity - needing wireless to use an online tool, needing space for screens, laptops, power… It’s really easy to put up eight tables with tripods and pads. Paper is reliable, durable, flexible.

If you’re sticking with paper and pen, what about…

• ….starting the session by asking ‘what should I write‘? Maybe the group can give you then nod about the real nuggets of wisdom - this sometimes happens anyway.
• …use giant post-its? See examples below - one sticky note per topic, you can easily re-arrange them, make stacks, sequences, grids. Flexible and fun (and eye catchingly neon too).
• …only write down questions? It’s easy to fall into this anyway (see pic above), but maybe formalizing it is good.
• …work on top of a map or diagram? If you’re discussing bike routes, why not draw all the comments onto a map, rather than writing down street names or trying to describe places in words. Maybe have some giant map flags or push pins handy?
• …working wordle-style? Write down words rather than sentences, and be ready to start a new wordle when the topic changes. Downside is that you might not be getting wordle-able info from people.
• …drawing a diagram? Make it a mind map, or a bubble diagram - work out from the center and fill the page.
• …filling a pre-defined grid? If you’ve got four things to discuss, divvy up your page into panels and keep within them.
• …make space for several pages side-by-side? Maybe having the single active page is restrictive.

Like most planning innovations, there are probably several paths worth following - laptops and paper and stickies, all at once. I’m trying some of these alternative pen+paper methods soon… interested to hear other ideas.