It is a daunting task: taking minutes for a group of technical experts, who use terms and abbreviations that they may understand, but you don’t. The prospect of producing minutes that show ignorance is not appealing. What can you do?

Here are a few tips:

• Before the meeting: Make it your business to learn about the subject matter that will be discussed at the meeting. Ask your Chair to give you a crash course on this subject matter or give you all essential documents. Also ask for a list of relevant terms and abbreviations and learn them before the meeting. Finally, establish with the Chair that, if absolutely needed, it would be okay for you to ask for clarification as the meeting progresses.
• At the meeting: Refer to your list of terms and abbreviations when a confusing term is used. If it is not on your list, you can do one of two things: ask the Chair or the group to help you with it (“I need some help for the minutes. How do you spell ___?”), or add it to a list of questions that you will raise with knowledgeable members after the meeting.
• After the meeting: Follow up with the Chair or knowledgeable members and find out about the meaning of any terms that you’re not sure about. In addition, ask them to review your draft minutes for technical accuracy.