Meeting Management - Werewolf

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Added by Henri Kuuste, last edited by patosan on Dec 08, 2006 (view change)
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Comment: Migrated to Confluence 4.0

Not to mention that they are often interrupted by someone having to work, eat or go to the bathroom or some such nonsense.

You can try and hold it.

What we have to realize is that the time issue is mostly beyond our control.

It is agreed that life is what it is and no one is doing this full time. It is difficult to squeeze more things done out of a given day.

Planned meetings.
These we know about at least a day in advance. In my option the person who called the meeting and/or presides over it should start a wiki document or something that shortly lists points he thinks should be discussed.
Then other people taking part of the meeting will add their ideas to the wishlist. There is a deadline on this. After the deadline and before the meeting, the presiding member will go over the list and prioritize the points.

Unless it is a very large meeting, usually this can be done just minutes before the meeting. 10 mins. before the meeting should be fine for a cutoff. Still, I wouldn't throw out a good idea for a bullet point just because they didn't meet the deadline. We shouldn't plan 1/2 the meeting this way, but the occasional item here and there can be forgiven.

We should set an amount of time that we will allow discussion on a given topic. This will help prevent needless chit chat and wandering from the subject going too far. The presiding member can extend conversations at the expense of other agenda items if most everyone agrees that it is important enough.

Impromtu meetings.
For these there should always be a list of issues that need discussion..preferably prioritized to some extent.
Of course usually the meeting is called with a purpose, so the purpose goes to the top of the list.
Otherwise the process is the same as for planned meetings.

There needs to be an agreement about who will transcribe the outcome on to the Wiki. These types of meetings would preferrably occur on IRC, and the contents / decisions should go in the Wiki. A mention of the meeting should go in a News item, so people who didn't happen to be around at the time can still read and comment / debate the decision. Even if you think no one would be interested in the meeting, it could be useful for historical purposes and for noobs sniffing around asking, "How / why was this decided?" Go read the Wiki and / or the logs you insufferable newb!

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Dec 08, 2006

Henri Kuuste
Another short point. During the meeting notes should be made of course. So far I have found that the resulting notes are rather confusing (just check out the last changes to the laws and government doc - "Certain, important freemen are allow to file briefs are file"??).
Hence I propose that meetings be held with a public notebook in an app such as Gobby..where everyone can keep their eye on it and make a loud noise if something is wrong or missing.
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1. Dec 08, 2006
  
  patosan
  Hence I propose that meetings be held with a public notebook in an app such as Gobby..where everyone can keep their eye on it and make a loud noise if something is wrong or missing.
  
  Gobby is nice for very interactive meetings.
  
  The Wiki would be very useful as well, when it is agreed that there will be just one person taking notes. This way, there wouldn't be any need to Wikize the text in the gobby log. What's wikize? You know, formatting, adding WikiWords, that kind of thing.
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  1. Dec 09, 2006
    
    Henri Kuuste
    My point here is that Gobby is needed so that other can see what you are typing, not necessarily join in on the typing action. So far my experience has been pretty bad with just you typing notes somewhere for example...the result is confusing and often lacks a lot of the points that I think should have been on there...not to mention unfinished sentences and just plain errors.
    So not just for "very interactive" meetings - any meetings.
    
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    1. Dec 09, 2006
      
      patosan
      
      Yep, you and I have used a Wiki and had a good result. A wiki would better for very large meetings. Whomever is editing the wiki just needs to post their changes every now and again. Gobby is and effective tool too, especially for small groups.
      
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Dec 08, 2006

patosan
I'll write more when I get home... This is a start though.
Once the meeting is in progress, it is up to the meeting leader to go over the points and keep people on track. If any related or unrelated issues pop up, their estimated length of discussion should be given and based on that a decision made:

it is short and can be discussed right now

it is a lil lengthy

it goes to the "if we have time" list

it is scheduled for another meeting
There should be a hard time limit on side issues. Say 10 minutes. If the issue cannot be decided by then, the issue is tabled and recorded in the notes for future discussion. These notes should eventually be posted to the wiki. If the devs agree they could proceed to settle the "side issue" if it is deemed that it blocks other decisions in the meeting.
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Dec 09, 2006

Henri Kuuste
I wonder why you edited the blog rather than posting a comment

Anyway...

Unless it is a very large meeting, usually this can be done just minutes before the meeting. 10 mins. before the meeting should be fine for a cutoff. Still, I wouldn't throw out a good idea for a bullet point just because they didn't meet the deadline. We shouldn't plan 1/2 the meeting this way, but the occasional item here and there can be forgiven.

Sure there can be some leeway for important points that did not make the deadline. But the deadline should not be 10 min. Much more than that for sure. I personally want to prepare for the meeting. Make notes for the important things we are certainly going to discuss and maybe prepare some slides or pictures or whatever. So a short preparation time is bad practice. Certainly making the list of discussion points should start at the time when the meeting is first announced, and should and at least a few hours before the meeting (unless the meeting is early morning in which case it would still not give time for preparation - you know..sleep and all).

We should set an amount of time that we will allow discussion on a given topic. This will help prevent needless chit chat and wandering from the subject going too far. The presiding member can extend conversations at the expense of other agenda items if most everyone agrees that it is important enough.

IMO the presiding member should make sure that all topics that were listed as discussion points (not "if we have time") are at least briefly discussed. So yeah..time limits for initial discussions of those points do make sense. If more discussion is needed they are pushed to the top of the "if we have time list". Some items can probably marked as dire - needing a resolution asap. In those cases they should probably be resolved before anything else is done.

There needs to be an agreement about who will transcribe the outcome on to the Wiki. These types of meetings would preferrably occur on IRC, and the contents / decisions should go in the Wiki. A mention of the meeting should go in a News item, so people who didn't happen to be around at the time can still read and comment / debate the decision. Even if you think no one would be interested in the meeting, it could be useful for historical purposes and for noobs sniffing around asking, "How / why was this decided?" Go read the Wiki and / or the logs you insufferable newb!

Meetings would preferably occur on Skype..for me at least..you know the reason for that very well. If it is on IRC I am going to need a secretary soon
Newbs do not really need to know what happened exactly..but sure it can help in some instances. Meeting notes can list some reasons for the tougher resolutions.
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1. Dec 09, 2006
  
  patosan
  I wonder why you edited the blog rather than posting a comment
  
  That'll teach me to do this stuff when I'm dead tired. I guess I need to create an admin and non-admin account.
  
  Sure there can be some leeway for important points that did not make the deadline. But the deadline should notbe 10 min. Much more than that for sure. I personally want to prepare for the meeting.
  
  If any of us aren't ready to comment and feel like they need more time to research / consider something, then we can just say so. It happens all the time in meetings at work.
  
  "How are we going to approach making the new mega-widget?"
  "We're looking into it..."
  
  Anyhow, there are surely lots of questions that we all should be able to answer off the top of our heads. "What are you currently working on?" "How much time until you finish animating the new River Troll?" These are all things that could be added at the last minute with no negative impact.
  
  the list of discussion points should start at the time when the meeting is first announced, and should and at least a few hours before the meeting (unless the meeting is early morning in which case it would still not give time for preparation - you know..sleep and all).
  
  Oh, we are so weak!
  
  If more discussion is needed they are pushed to the top of the "if we have time list". Some items can probably marked as dire - needing a resolution asap. In those cases they should probably be resolved before anything else is done.
  
  There are lots of circumstances we all run into during meetings (well, at least I do) where a discussion goes around in circles. Usually it is best to take such discussions offline, give people some time away from the discussion in order to give the participants some time to think about the issue. Sure, there are times where there is just more time needed to resolve issues, so putting the topic up for discussion "if there's time" is an option as well.
  
  Newbs do not really need to know what happened exactly..but sure it can help in some instances. Meeting notes can list some reasons for the tougher resolutions.
  
  Whether they really need to know is one thing, whether or not they will waste time by asking is another. It is always nice to be able to point newbs to resources, rather than saying, "You don't need to know.", or, "Who knows? I've forgotten". That will start an inevitable, time wasting debate. I saw this all the time at WorldForge.
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