Through the Phases

I work in a team of three with quite a broad range of activities to undertake and so time is a precious commodity.  We have a weekly team meeting where we discuss the latest news, updates and future commitments; with no administrative support to take notes and synthesise actions.  Having a meeting that lasts an hour, sometimes taking the same again to write up and prepare for is an absolute waste of time.

To get around this problem our team began using Google Docs.  We have one version of our minutes which is in perpetual beta (constant development).  Our team updates this document as and when things happen during the week.  When we get to the team meeting we have an almost complete document, and one that is much richer than quickly filling it in five minutes before the meeting is due to begin.

After an in-depth discussion about what we’ve been up to, we finalise the minutes with actions.  A copy of the minutes is saved as a PDF and stored on a shared drive (or space).  We name each file using the same naming convention YYYY MM DD ‘Team Name’ Team Meeting – Minutes.pdf, the reason being so that you can order by date neatly in folder view on the shared drive.  This acts as a firm record for future reference although we could always use the history control if required ;-)