[OSList] The role of session transcribers, this is my oslist session invite.

Lisa Heft lisaheft at openingspace.net
Wed Oct 24 13:29:57 PDT 2012


i know that so many people have never had the experience of receiving  
notes after discussions - and that some people use the notes for  
deeper reflection post-event.
Some organizations turn them into work-sheets for projects, some  
return six months later to re-convene a group of people who cared  
about something.
Some groups give everyone their Book of Proceedings and then a smaller  
sub-group has fun going over it to look for patterns and new ideas  
inspired by the notes.
Some individuals do not look at the notes at all - but I have found  
that many people do - especially if it is in the form of a Book of  
Proceedings rather than individual posted notes on wiki for example.
And yes, some people do not feel they need to take notes at all, and  
that is fine.

When I see multiple people taking notes I invite them to add their  
notes together, or I take a photo of their mind-maps and put that into  
the Book - and even if someone creates poetry or a drawing during the  
meeting I feel that is 'the work' as well so I put that into the Book  
as well.

I am always seeking (with Open Space and with other processes) easy  
ways for participants to self-document so that the wisdom shared in  
one little group is shared across all the groups - so that if one  
little discussion group has a discovery that knowledge is not limited  
to that small group who went to that particular discussion, but  
instead informs the whole.

That is why I appreciate people having written up notes as much as  
they have from the WOSonOS and other events where I have been a  
participant. I want to learn from more than the little groups I was  
able to get to.

And I want to see who attended each group - because possibly I may  
want to invite people interested in a topic to explore further post- 
event (when I am a participant) or when I consult with an organization  
sometimes the client sees topics in the Book that had high interest  
and wishes to re-convene people interested in it. And so on.

I have found that it is useful to put a live Newsroom in the Open  
Space meeting room (as happened at the WOSonOS - gracefully  
coordinated by Kirsty & Company) - and wonderful Kas has improved my  
understanding of how to show in the room what notes are outstanding  
and which are completed - so participants can see that as they go  
throughout their discussions. I find that giving participants back a  
Book of Proceedings - with some photos to remind them of a body-sense  
of their passion and engagement - is something many participants  
really like. I am not always the one who does the documentation with a  
client and of course documentation design always depends on how much  
overall meeting time there is, as well as ways of inviting non- 
burdensome / collective co-responsibility documentation. Sometimes  
documentation - especially for a short meeting - is as simple as a  
list of what topics were posted and who attended each discussion plus  
a list of participant contact / networking information.

Yes - the notes are as detailed as whomever takes the notes. But I  
like the co-responsibility of participants actively sharing what they  
are learning and as Harrison says - most notes give the general thrust  
and content of that session.

And for example a science conference I facilitated was a great  
opportunity for people to share knowledge across disciplines and they  
are very interested in reading each others' notes - and surprised that  
so much information comes into an informal writing as they are so used  
to academic papers. And at another conference I facilitated,  
participants really appreciate a Book of Proceedings because they can  
show their funders about their retreat or conference and can use the  
Book to generate conversations back at the office. It also can give  
people in organizations some leverage in showing what convening groups  
in dialogue can be and how productive such a convening can be - so  
they get a bit more support for doing more of that in their  
organization.

Just some things I have observed about session notes...

Lisa



On Oct 24, 2012, at 8:11 AM, Harrison Owen wrote:

> Kari – It has always seemed to me that the real value of the notes  
> from various sessions was/is just to alert anybody-interested in the  
> general thrust and content of that session. Any similarity between  
> OS Reports and formal, edited, officially sanctioned minutes is  
> purely co-incidental. I always tried to label the “Proceedings”  
> DRAFT, back in the days when we had hard copy – just to make the  
> point that it is all a work in progress. But the good news is that  
> -- should you be interested, but not quite understand – you have the  
> name (and usually email) of the author. Talk to themJ
>
> Harrison

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