Agenda Writing HowTo

Notes and gripes

This page needs to be wikified (it's mostly html). This started out as an email, and I [SL] was going to wikify it. I'll get to it Real Soon Now.

A note and some complaints:

• Things inside [ square brackets ] are notes about additions and syntax. (Janet, ignore them!)
• html2wiki is incomplete, but is a good start for wikification. For future reference, the command is
  • html2wiki --dialect MoinMoin --encoding iso-8859-1 a2.html > a2.wiki
• Our version of Trac annoys me
  • It gets confused by a table within a list.
  • It can't handle outline-y lists (i.e.: 1, 1.a, 1.b. 2, 2.a. 2.b), although Trac's can (see screenshot to right).

Wiki-fy me, please!

Agenda-prep
During the week you should:

1. Pay attention during Open Build days. When someone says something important, either take notes or ask them to email you (or both!).
2. Read the minutes of the last meeting.
3. Read and participate in the email list.
4. Read email that FGC people send to you rather than the email list.

Agenda-drafting
Ideally on the Tuesday or Wednesday before a Sunday CC meeting, you should review everything. It's just a review, because you will have read it all before (or written it). First, create a new agenda from the template (details below). Then, add items to the agenda as needed. It's usually easier to quote than to write a brand-new explanation. And try not to editorialize (too much). It may help to look over things in this order:

1. Staff meeting minutes
2. Email list. This tends to have the freshest and most extensive discussions. It's really helpful if the agenda includes links to the relevant discussions.
3. Open Build roundups. They're part of the email list, but are so helpful that they deserve special attention, 
4. Minutes. Is anything held over? Unresolved?
5. Previous agenda. Was anything missed?
6. Email from FGC people. Since these topics aren't yet part of the public discussion, more explanation will be needed.
7. Your notes. These tend to be older. Since the specifics tend to be new to the group as a whole, you'll often need to explain more. So it's easier if you can get these topics another way.
8. Dave. The first couple times you write the agenda, you should run it by Dave before posting. Once you get his notes, you will be ready to post.

Agenda-writing, in short
It's best to post an agenda on the Wednesday or Thursday before the meeting. This gives people a chance to respond, but it's late enough that people who read the agenda Wednesday might still remember it Sunday. The simple steps:

1. Put on the wiki (details below). Save it.
2. Clean it up. Save again.
3. Proofreed. Save again.
4. ProofreAd again. Save again.
5. Once it's clean, send to the email list.

Agenda-writing, in detail
This is probably more detail than you need.

1. Log in to the wiki (http://codex.freegeekchicago.org/). If you don't have a login, ask Dave or Aaron.


2. Start a new agenda page:
1. First, find the last agenda. You can find a link in your email, or in the Google group (http://groups.google.com/group/freegeekchicago-talk), or in the wiki. From any page in the wiki, click the "Timeline" tab, and you'll see a list of all the pages that have been created or edited in the last 60 days. Click the newest MeetingAgenda that has the date of the last meeting.
2. OK, you're at the previous agenda. At the bottom of the page, add a comment, such as "Next meeting agenda is at http://wiki.freegeekchicago.org/wiki/MeetingAgenda/2010-12-05." (Pro tip: You don't  want to type all that. Copy-n-paste the URL from your browser's address bar [add image] and change the relevant parts of the date; if there's a question mark, delete it — and everything on its right side.) [add image]
3. In Comments, click the link that you just created [add image]. (DON'T go to the top of the page yet!) Your browser will go to a new page; at the bottom of the page, in the line that starts Using the template: select "CommunityCouncilMeetingAgenda" from the menu. Click the button saying "Create this page". [add image w/ 1,2]
3. Edit the page. You can use the wiki's built-in editor or your favorite text editor. This howto assumes you'll use the wiki's editor (If you're tech-savvy enough to have a favorite text editor, the adjustment is trivial.). Your job will be a LOT easier if you are familiar with (or at least to know about) Trac wiki syntax, at http://wiki.freegeekchicago.org/wiki/WikiFormatting.
1. Use the wiki's editor: simply click the link at top left that says "Edit this page". (If you can't see the link, you're probably not logged in.) [add image]
2. Two-column format is much easier to use than single-column. If there aren't two columns:
   • Click in the "Edit side-by-side" checkbox (top-right of the page).
   • Then click the "Preview Page" button below the edit box. [add image w/ 1,2]
   • Now the left column is the edit box, and the right column is the Preview area, which shows how it will look. [add image]
3. WARNING: Sometimes the wiki times out, and then it loses your changes (usually when it's 1 a.m. and you want to go to bed). Before saving any major edits, copy everything in the edit box, and paste it into Notepad (Windows) or gedit (Ubuntu) or your favorite text editor — and save it. 
4. Write. 
   • Briefly describe all the agenda items.
   • For details, summarize or quote from discussions.
   • Add relevant links.
   • Give items better titles than "second old item" or "third new item."
   • Don't forget to save your work! After you've saved to a text editor, click the button "Submit Changes" at the bottom of the page.
5. Format. You can format a little by selecting text in the edit box and using the buttons at the top of the box. But that functionality is limited, and it's a hassle to scroll up and down the page. Really, it's easier to learn a little Trac wiki markup, because Trac's wiki markup is sooo easy. You can see examples in pages created with the agenda template. Here are some high points [ formatting, gah, meta-formatting. (If you wikify, use `backquotes` to force Trac to display things literally. On lines beginning italics, bold, headings, & sub-headings, put one backquote after the colon and put another backquote at the end of the line.) ] :
   • italics: '' use 2 single quotes on each side ''
   • bold: ''' use 3 single quotes on each side '''
   • links: just put in a regular URL, starting with "http", like this https://groups.google.com/group/freegeekchicago-talk. [todo: HT copy-n-paste a link]
   • wiki links:  if you use CamelCase Trac will automagically create a link to that wiki page (whether it exists or not).
   • headings: === use 3 equals signs on each side ===
   • sub-headings: ==== use 4 equals signs on each side (use 5 for sub-sub-headings) ====
   • bullet points:  start a line space-asterisk-space, * . (Asterisk-space also works, but it's harder to read — so don't do it.)
   • Read the details at http://wiki.freegeekchicago.org/wiki/WikiFormatting. There's lots more, including tables, images, and lists (which all are used in this document).
6. Clean up. 
   • Don't forget to change the generic things at the top: meeting date, link to previous agenda, and link to previous minutes.
   • Delete any empty placeholders ("Nineteenth new item" will be empty, if you have any luck at all.).
   • A link to another wiki page should go to the main version of that page, and not to a numbered version (which will get outdated). For example, 

     do this:	http://codex.freegeekchicago.org/wiki/MeetingAgenda/2011-02-13
     NOT this:	http://codex.freegeekchicago.org/wiki/MeetingAgenda/2011-02-13?version=7

   • Look for weird stuff from broken wiki syntax, because Trac can be picky. For example:
     • If you have an un-indented line that starts with an asterisk, but you wanted a bullet point — put a space after the asterisk.
     • If a line ends with an equals sign, you probably have a heading with different numbers of equals signs on the left and right.
     • If you have a paragraph that's all italics, you probably indented it one space.
     • If you have a mysterious link to nowhere that you didn't create, you probably used CamelCase and created a link automagically. Turn it off by prefixing the word with an exclamation mark, like this: !CamelCase.
   • Don't forget to save your work!
7. When you're done, click the button "Submit Changes" at the bottom of the page.
8. Proofreed. Read over it at least twice. Don't just read it — fix things!
9. Really, proofraed it again.
4. Email it to the list. You could just email a link. But that's a bad idea — both because people are less likely to click through to read it, and because people are less likely to reply. So,:
1. Copy-n-paste the agenda's body from the wiki to email. (It will look prettier if you copy from the edit page's Preview area [because it won't have an internal link after every agenda item].)
2. Introduce it better. Give it an introduction that's for email, rather than for a wiki page. Email is a more-conversational medium than wikis, so the email intro asks for replies (and the email intro has a link to the wiki page, which would be stupidly redundant on that same wiki page). You're free to write your own intro, or you can follow these steps:
   • In your email editor, delete the short first paragraph.
   • In the Google-group message about the previous agenda, copy the first paragraph. Paste it into your email editor.
   • Fix the link in the first paragraph so that it points to the correct agenda.
   • As explained above, be sure that the link is to the agenda's main version, and not a numbered version.
3. Clean up a little (still in your email editor).
   • Delete empty bullet points.
   • Delete agenda items that are irrelevant to email (mostly, these are parenthetical reminders about running the meeting):
     • delete questions under "Introduce yourself" about minutes and voters
     • delete agenda item near the bottom, "added agenda items"
     • delete note at the very bottom about how to write agendas (which links to this page).
   • If you copied the page title ("Community council meeting agenda 02/13/2011") into the body of the email, cut it. That should be the subject line.
   • Give the email a subject line if you haven't already done so.
   • Trac has a bug that adds an unsightly leading underline to external links. Fix 'em in email, if you're feeling fussy.
4. Proofread once more. 
5. Send it to freegeekchicago-talk@googlegroups.com.
5. Create the short version of the agenda to hand out at the meeting.
1. Each main item gets one line, double-spaced.
2. Each announcement, report, and follow-up gets a single-spaced line.
3. MORE
4. DETAIL
5. PLEASE

Agenda Printing

1. On meeting days, add any new items from Google group discussions. Or from face-to-face discussions. Or whatever.
2. Print the agendas around 4:30 or 5pm. Just open the short version of the agenda in Firefox at either of the main computer stations (because they're set up with the printer), and hit Ctrl-P. Print just one copy to start off, so you can make sure it looks OK. You'll probably need ten to fifteen copies.
3. Collate, staple, pass 'em around.
4. Ahhh, you're done — for this week

How you can improve the agenda
Here are some improvements you could bring into the process:

1. Involve more people in the process. A day or two before drafting, email folks who tend to have a lot to say.
2. Look at other organizations' agendas on the web for ideas. Look at OpenOffice's agenda wizard.

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