Secretarying

The taking and correcting of minutes:

1800s-early 1900s: Handwritten in a special bound book from handwritten notes. One copy only -- each meeting they are read and corrections made as needed.

1900s: Typewritten from handwritten notes, kept in a binder. Maybe one carbon copy -- each meeting they are read and corrections made as needed.

2000s: Keyboarded directly at the meeting. Revised and copies emailed to every attendee the following day for correction while memories are fresh. Reading is superfluous; copies made available to those who missed the meeting.

How many societies are keeping their records in the wrong century?


(FYI: This blog was "locked" by Google over the past weekend for unspecified alleged offenses. My wonderful tech person discovered a possibly offending widget and removed it. She then requested a review [as I had done earlier] and we were back in business Monday morning. My personal takeaway: there is no excess of due process or basic fairness in a world where we depend on giant corporations to communicate with one another.)

Coming next week: a new blogging regime. Call it Methodology Mondays.



Harold Henderson, "Secretarying," Midwestern Microhistory: A Genealogy Blog, posted 11 February 2014 (http://midwesternmicrohistory.blogspot.com : viewed [date]). [Please feel free to link to the specific post if you prefer.]