Overview

  1. Meetings should generally be “speedy” (25, 40 or 50-minutes long)
  2. Meeting DRI
    1. For internal calls: team member who schedules the meetings and sends calendar invite
    2. For external calls: the team member who made the initial contact or request for a meeting is responsible for assigning a DRI to handle the agenda, calendar invite and follow-up correspondence and action items.
  3. At a minimum, every call should have an agenda.
    1. Create the agenda in a Google Doc ahead of time using GTLF’s Agenda Template (by duplicating the template) in the Meeting Notes folder on the shared drive.
      1. Please do not use Google Calendar's automatic agenda/notes creation function, as it does not adhere to our team’s preferred agenda flow. If the automatic agenda doc has been created in error, edit the calendar invite and hover over the X to delete it from the agenda to avoid confusion.
      2. You can learn more about notetaking below.
    2. Ensure that the appropriate sharing settings are in place to prevent a chorus of "I can't access the agenda" comments; agendas should be editable by all participants. Team members will have edit access for any documents saved in the GitLab Foundation drive.
    3. Link the agenda in the meeting invite and give edit access to those who will be a part of the meeting.
      1. Generally, Google will inform you that invitees can’t access the document when you link it and share.
    4. Establish the agenda as far in advance of the meeting as possible.
    5. Agendas should use numbered lists, not bulleted lists.
  4. Meeting materials should be linked in the calendar invite and emailed to attendees at least 48-hours in advance
  5. If you need to miss a meeting that you were previously available for, please contact the DRI. If the DRI is unable to reschedule the meeting, they should add their AI notetaker to the meeting to review (Fireflies)

Pre-work and meeting kick-off

  1. Pre-read/watch or pre-work materials should be emailed to attendees at least 24 hours in advance.
  2. The meeting host (DRI) may summarize key points and context for the first 1 to 2 minutes of the meeting, but few meetings should be presentations.
  3. When possible, questions should be written and listed in advance of the scheduled meeting time; this tends to increase their quality.

Notetaking

  1. Take notes in line with the agenda rather than using a separate “notes” section. Multiple participants are encouraged to take real-time notes (check out GitLab Inc.’s guidance here).
  2. If you’re not talking in the meeting at any given time, help take notes. If there isn’t a note-taker listed in the document at the start of the meeting, people should self-note-take.
    1. Consider asking other people to write down the answers in real time to allow the person who asked the question to focus on the answer. The person asking the question can touch up the answer when the conversation has moved on to something less relevant to them.
  3. Notes should be properly indented and structured to follow the conversation’s flow.
  4. Notes should not be verbatim, but they should capture key points and be clear on any decisions or next steps.
  5. Preface questions and answers with the participant’s name, giving context to the origin.

You can see several examples of notetaking here and here.

AI Notetaker

The Foundation also uses Fireflies for note-taking and recording in meetings at times. Learn more here!

Timekeeping

  1. The meeting organizer should generally keep track of time (or assign the task to another team member on the call).
  2. Understand meeting length. Use the calendar invite to indicate how long the meeting should last.
  3. Provide a 5-minute and a 1-minute notification. You can write “Time check, 5 minutes” on Zoom chat.
  4. If a meeting is running over the allocated time, unmute and verbally say, “We’re over time.” Don’t wait for a break in the conversation.