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  • 1.  How do you get the most of of meeting minutes?

    Posted 20 days ago

    What is important to you in meeting minutes? What are you trying to accomplish? Furthermore, creating a meeting summary is easier than ever with AI. How do you check and verify your AI-generated minutes for veracity and completeness?



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    Mitch Winkler P.E.(inactive), M.ASCE
    Houston, TX
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  • 2.  RE: How do you get the most of of meeting minutes?

    Posted 19 days ago

    Great question, Mitch.

    1. Action items -- what, who and when.
    2. Decisions made
    3. Attendees

    Everything else seems like fluff.

    I have insufficient experience with AI-generated minutes.

    Bill Mc



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    William McAnally Ph.D., P.E., BC.CE, BC.NE, F.ASCE
    ENGINEER
    Columbus MS
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    Original Message


  • 3.  RE: How do you get the most of of meeting minutes?

    Posted 16 days ago

    Clearly pinpointed Bill. I would like to add some other dimensions to them.

    One such aspect occurs when there are some degrees of attention-deficit among the participating members. This could happen for different sorts of reasons – such as the state of mind, distraction, disinterest in the subject-matter, etc. In such cases meetings become less effective, and omissions and distortions creep in the minutes. A moderator/convener has the responsibility to see to them.

    Different electronic devices such as audio and video-recording are used to do away with them. Use of them can hardly be overstated – especially in cases when participants work and join meetings remotely.

    As I gather – use of a legitimate AI is getting into the business of meetings. A Machine listening to conversations (minus the highlighted human attention-deficit of sorts) and reproducing them in an instructed manner of writing minutes – is an advantage, wouldn't you say. This dimension and some associated limitations are discussed in 6. Human-AI teaming of AI – and in other collaboration threads: AI in Practice Today; Suggestions for your "Teams".

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    Dr. Dilip K Barua, PhD

    Website Links and Profile



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    Original Message


  • 4.  RE: How do you get the most of of meeting minutes?

    Posted 13 days ago

    Hi Mitch, nice inquiry.
    In my case, I use pencil and paper to capture the most important topics and responsibilities during the meeting. When I finish the meeting, I download the "transcript" from Read.ai or a similar service and prepare the minutes using another AI (e.g., ChatGPT), using a picture of my piece of paper as another source of information. Later, I read all the minutes to ensure every word accurately reflects the meeting. Remember that AI sometimes hallucinates.



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    Andres Guzman D.Eng., MEng, Ing., F.ASCE
    Associate Professor
    UNIVERSIDAD DEL NORTE
    Barranquilla
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    Original Message


  • 5.  RE: How do you get the most of of meeting minutes?

    Posted 10 days ago

    For meetings I participate in where it seems like nobody has officially been nominated to take meeting minutes, I tend to open a blank Word file (or a previously saved one if this meeting is related to a particular ongoing task or project). Like Bill suggested, I try to capture the action items, decisions, and attendees. However, I do also tend to write down a lot of the "fluff" in between as well. For me that can be a reminder of project background, or reason for interest/participation of certain members.

    Mostly this results in helping me build and preserve institutional knowledge about a given task



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    Christopher Seigel P.E., M.ASCE
    Civil Engineer
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    Original Message


  • 6.  RE: How do you get the most of of meeting minutes?

    Posted 7 days ago

    For me, the most important part of meeting minutes is documenting decisions, action items, responsible parties, and deadlines. In engineering projects, this becomes especially important because meeting minutes often serve as a reference point later in the project lifecycle.

    AI-generated summaries can definitely save time, especially during long coordination meetings, but I do not rely on them without review. I usually compare the summary against my own notes and verify that technical discussions, commitments, and assigned tasks were captured correctly. AI is very good at summarizing conversations, but it can still miss context, misunderstand technical details, or omit important follow-up items.

    I also find that concise meeting minutes are more effective than overly detailed transcripts. Clear action items and accountability tend to provide the most long-term value.



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    Darya Stanskova M.ASCE
    Cost Estimator, Construction Engineer, Power Engineer, Project Manager
    Fort Myers FL
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    Original Message


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