<!--
Author: Simon-Pierre Boucher
Contact: contact@spboucher.ai
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# Examples — Meeting Notes House Style

## Contents
- Action-item pairs
- Complete worked example (bad → house style)
- The "no decisions" meeting
- Gotchas

## Action-item pairs

| ❌ Never | ✅ House style |
|---|---|
| Team to look into hosting costs | Alex: cost comparison of the 3 hosting options in a shared sheet — by Aug 12 |
| Marketing to follow up with the agency | Priya: get revised banner quotes from the agency, post in #launch — by Thu |
| Everyone review the spec | Each of Dana/Alex/Sam: comments on spec v3 in the doc — by Mon 10am |
| Discuss pricing next time | OPEN: pricing tier for EDU — Simon adds it to next sync's agenda with legal's VAT answer |

## Complete worked example

**Raw input (chronological ramble):**

> talked about launch date, marketing wants sept, eng says risky. went back
> and forth on the export feature. decided to cut it. sarah raised the EU
> question again, nobody had the legal answer. mike will do something about
> the beta emails. next meeting tuesday.

**❌ Bad version (chronological, ownerless):**

> Meeting Notes
>
> We started by discussing the launch date. Marketing prefers September but
> engineering expressed concerns. There was a long discussion about the
> export feature and it was eventually decided to cut it. Sarah raised the
> EU question again. Mike will handle the beta emails. Next meeting Tuesday.

**✅ House-style version:**

> **Aug 5 · Launch sync · Sarah, Mike, Priya, Simon (notes) · Goal: lock scope for Sept launch**
>
> **Decisions**
> 1. Export feature cut from launch scope — blocks 0 of 12 beta customers;
>    keeping it risks the September window. (Revisit for the October release.)
>
> **Action items**
> - Mike: send beta-cohort email announcing the export change — by Aug 7
> - Priya: confirm Sept 15 with the agency and book assets — by Aug 8
> - Simon: circulate these notes; corrections by Aug 6 noon
>
> **OPEN**
> - EU availability at launch — blocked on legal's VAT answer.
>   Next: Sarah asks legal by Aug 7; decision at Tuesday's sync.
>
> **Discussion summary**
> - Marketing (Priya) holds Sept 15; engineering (Mike) called the date
>   "tight but doable" once export was cut.
> - Sarah noted the EU question has now slipped twice — hence the OPEN flag
>   with a dated next step.
>
> Next sync: Tue Aug 12, same time.

## The "no decisions" meeting

> **Aug 6 · Architecture brainstorm · Full eng team · Goal: explore options (no decision expected)**
>
> **No decisions — discussion only.**
>
> **Action items**
> - Dana: write up option A (event-sourced) as a 1-pager — by Fri
> - Sam: write up option B (CRUD + audit log) as a 1-pager — by Fri
>
> **Discussion summary:** [3–5 neutral bullets]

## Recurring-meeting variant (carry-forward discipline)

For weekly syncs, open with last week's actions and their status — an action
item that never gets re-read never gets done.

> **Carried from Aug 5:**
> - ✅ Mike: beta-cohort email — sent Aug 7
> - ❌ Priya: agency confirmation — slipped; new date Aug 14 (2nd slip — flagged)
>
> **Decisions** …

Rules: a slipped action keeps its history ("2nd slip") rather than silently
getting a fresh deadline; done items appear once with ✅ then drop off; an
action slipping three times goes to the meeting agenda as a blocker, not
back onto the list.

## Gotchas

- **"Owner: everyone"** means owner: no one. Split it per person or assign
  one collector.
- **Deadlines like "next week"** rot instantly — convert to a date while the
  meeting context is fresh.
- **Decisions hidden in the discussion section** get missed by the
  decisions-only readers; if it was decided, it appears under Decisions,
  full stop.
- **Recording who was late/absent-with-excuse** is surveillance, not minutes —
  list attendees, skip the commentary.
- **The corrections window** ("stands as the record after tomorrow noon")
  is what turns notes into an authoritative artifact; don't skip it.