One of me & my co-workers responsibilities is taking minutes in the company's executive meeting. Manager calls a meeting today saying the new CEO has asked if we can get the minutes to him the same day as the meeting. We're just sitting there like
We'd agreed that the answer was 'no' and then my manager says something about what if the CEO is 'really adamant'
And I'm like okay as per our previous discussion we have agreed that the minutes typically take 5 hours of focused work. The executive meeting typically runs 10-12 and we need to take 30 minutes for our lunch afterwards. He can be as adamant as he want the maths just doesn't math.
Just kind confirmed my suspicions that the executives have no concept of how much work these minutes are. The meetings sometimes run upwards of 3 hours and the minute taker has to be 100% focused the whole time. Never once had anyone suggest that the person on minutes might need a break even if everyone else is fine :(
The specific expectations depend on the meeting but the executive generally want detailed minutes so what you're aiming to do is 1) take down the entire 2+ hour discussion point by point as it happens and then 2) turn that into a readable document.
Personally I'm capable of something close to a real time transcript so when I'm minuting I'm simultaneously listening to what's currently being said and making decisions about whether and how to transcribe it AND typing up what was being said 10-20 seconds ago so it's like. A full brain engagement job.
