How To Prepare the Board Meeting Minutes
Contents
1 Copy & Update Last Month's Minutes
Make a copy of the last month's minutes (build/data/psf/records/board/minutes/YYYY-MM-DD/content.ht in the website repository).
E.g. copy build/data/psf/records/board/minutes/2008-11-10/content.ht to build/data/psf/records/board/minutes/2008-12-08/content.ht
- Update last month's minutes, removing "(Draft)" from the first line and "| Draft" from the title block.
Update the table of contents, build/data/psf/records/board/minutes/content.ht. At the top, add a link to the now-approved last month's minutes, e.g.:
* `November 10, 2008 <2008-11-10>`_
Add a header for the new year in January.
2 Update This Month's Minutes
- Update the date in the page title (first line) and in the title block ("|" border on the left). Be sure the title line says "(Draft)" and the title block has "| Draft" under the date.
- Update the date & time in the intro paragraph under the title block. Verify who presided and who prepared the minutes.
- Update the "Attendance" section, both Directors and "Also in attendance". If someone came late, after a vote, note the time they arrived (e.g. "(arrived at 17:20)"). Also note if anyone left early.
- Update the "Minutes of Past Meetings" section. Update the date of last month's meeting, and the vote. If there were any special meetings, note them and their votes also (e.g. annual Members' Meeting and first meeting of the new Board of Directors are both held at PyCon).
- Update the "Actions Taken Since the Last Meeting" section with any resolutions or major actions taken between minuted meetings. If there were none, replace "The actions below" with "No actions". Each action should be in its own subsection (underline with hyphens, i.e. "----").
Update the "Status of Past Action Items" section.
"Carried Forward" subsection: update the date of the last month's meeting. Verify the section number.
Remove any items marked **done** or **dropped** in the last month's minutes.
For items not marked **done** or **dropped** in last month's "New from _____" subsection, move them into the "Carried Forward" subsection. Add the following as a prefix:
Originally from DD Month YYYY,
Renumber the list from 1, adjusting indentation as necessary.
- "New from _____" subsection: update the date of the last month's meeting in the title and the first paragraph. Copy all action items from last month's minutes into a numbered list, and insert the section number and title ("Section X, Title:"). If there was more than one action item in a section (should be numbered), join the section number and the item number with a "." ("X.Y").
Referring to the "Action Items" private wiki page and the meeting transcript (IRC log), update the action items:
For all action items done or dropped, add brief details (link, date, etc., if applicable). Remove the action item markup:
:action:` & `
Add one of the following status lines:
Status: **done**. Status: **dropped**.
Bold-face markup ("**") is only used for the status of finalized items (items that will be removed next month).
For other action items, add brief details and add (or adjust) the status lines as follows:
Status: carried forward. Status: in progress.
Do not use bold-face markup ("**") for the status of non-final items.
Referring to the meeting agenda and transcript (IRC log), add a section for each topic discussed. Note action items as follows:
:action:`J. Doe will do XYZ.`
If there are multiple action items in a section, number them in a list:
1. :action:`J. Doe will do XYZ.` 2. :action:`A. Square will do ABC.`
(List items need not be adjacent. They may be separated by explanatory paragraphs etc.)
Send a copy of the completed minutes to the Board mailing list (psf@python.org).
3 Update Action Items
Update the "Action Items" private wiki page with new action items and status updates.