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I attend many proposal-related meetings, writer's meetings, proposal meetings,
etc.
I take whatever notes are necessary for what I do.
If the group wants a copy of those notes, I have no problem with
that...however, they are only going to be of use if they are doing what I do
since that's what the notes are geared toward.
OTOH, the meeting is usually run by a proposal manager (called an Opportunity
Manager around here) and it is that person's job to take down whatever
information is necessary for the operation of the proposal process. This
includes time schedules, commitments, action items, etc. These are typed up
and distributed to everyone on the team.
It is the responsibility of each member of the team to take whatever notes are
germain ONLY to that person or to the people that he/she will report to.
If there are to be notes taken to function as Minutes of the meeting, then a
person, who is trained (and there is training require for that type of thing,
besides being impartial) to do that type of thing is brought in specifically
for that purpose.
If you are a tech writer, you take notes specific to tech writing and
programmers take notes specific to them, and the lawyers take notes specific to
them, and if others want a copy, OK, just as long as others realize they are
specialized notes, and to not get bent about the comments and doodles.
Do NOT become a general note taker, and there is a specific reason. If you
are taking notes that are useful to everyone, then you will not have time to
think about, consider, evaluate and discuss the things that are specific to
what you do.
John Posada
- Central New Jersey Employment Manager
Society for Technical Communication http://stc.org/region2/njc/
- Technical Proposal Writer
Bell Communications Research
(908) 699-5839 (W)
jposada -at- notes -dot- cc -dot- bellcore -dot- com
"We dont want to go back to tomorrow, we want to go forward'"
- Vice President Dan Quayle
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I don't speak for my employer and they return the favor
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