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Once upon a time, this was the point of circulating 'minutes' or a summary after meetings. Outside of some special cases (e.g. the Federal Reserve), they're sp
by Bartweiss 7y ago
Once upon a time, this was the point of circulating 'minutes' or a summary after meetings.
Outside of some special cases (e.g. the Federal Reserve), they're specifically meant to reflect conclusions, not the full course of discussion. Back-and-forth that reaches an answer isn't needed, and a debate that ends unresolved would just read as a summary of the positions. That way, you can invite the people who need to speak in a meeting, while anyone who just needs to be informed about the result can catch up from a shorter, async source.
It seems like easy video recording and calling have been one reason for the decline - minutes were handy if someone couldn't make the meeting, but now they can dial in or watch it afterwards. That's great for not having to create a summary, but I think it loses much of the value of a concise, written record of what happened.
- dpeck 7y agoThe number of people who have ever watched/listened to a business meeting after it occurred is vanishingly small.
- bluGill 7y agoDepends on the minutes. I've seen some where the entire minutes where things like "Heard the report from the director of X on the state of Y". I would like to know if the department in question is a useful use of my tax dollars, so I really want to know what the state of Y is, but I'll probably need to do a FOIA request to get it.