Help for NENA-ADM-008 Agenda and Notes Form

Note: This is draft page to accompany a draft version of the NENA-ADM-008 Agenda and Notes form. Both the form and this page are subject to change.

Introduction

The NENA-ADM-008 Draft Agenda and Notes form is used for NENA meetings to prepare the proposed agenda and to document the essential results of the meeting.

The person preparing the agenda completes the fields shown in salmon/tan/orange and the meeting's note taker completes the sections in light blue. The note taker should distribute the form as soon as possible after the meeting to serve as DRAFT notes/minutes.

Recent Update

The NENA-ADM-008 form was recently updated to version 4 (NENA-ADM-008.4-2021) with these changes.

Replace the references to TurboBridge and join.me with guidance on using Zoom.
Removed opening questions and statements and text about Attendance tracking, the IPR and Antitrust Policy and NENA's Code of Conduct and placed links to them in the Meeting Etiquette section.

Accessibility

The ADM-008 Agenda OR Notes form is designed to satisfy the Accessibility tests in Microsoft Word. Formatting options are restricted to help keep the form from violating the accessibility rules. Once edits are made, you can verify that accessibility has been preserved by running the accessibility test. That is done by clicking on Check Accessibility in Word's Review tab. Among the kinds of edits that can cause accessibility warnings is the insertion of a graphic without entering Alternative Text information or inserting tables with specific styles.

The form is restricted. Locked. Protected. But you can stop the protection.

The form is distributed with formatting restricted to a limited number of formats as shown in its Styles group in the Home tab of Word. As distributed, it conforms to Word's accessibility standards. If it is necessary to stop the editing protection, you can click on Restrict Editing in the Protect group in the Review tab of Word, then click Stop Protection at the bottom of the Restrict Editing panel. Be aware, however, that the some formatting changes may threaten the accessibility status of the document. To re-enable protection, click on Yes, Start Enforcing Protection under item 3 on the Restrict Editing panel and then OK on the pop-up (adding password protection is optional).

Preparing the Agenda

These steps assume that you have already set up the meeting in NWS (NENA Workspace) and that the notes for the previous meeting have been uploaded to the group's notes folder.

The header

The header contains the Group Name, Agenda/Notes identifier, and Meeting Date. It appears at the top of all pages in the form.

To edit the header, double-click in the header area. Once the header area is selected, the three sections may be edited.

Group Name

Enter the group name.

Agenda

Since the Agenda is being prepared, click on the Agenda check box and if the Notes box was filled (from a previous meeting), clear it by clicking on it.

Notes

When the meeting starts, the note-taker will un-select the Agenda box and click on the Notes check box.

Meeting Date

Click on the orange Meeting Date text and then the drop-down arrow to open the date selector. Select the meeting date.

When editing the header is complete, double-click in the body of the form to select it.

Populate the NENA Workspace (NWS) Links

Note: These instructions and screen prints may not exactly match your version of Word or your browser. Also, some parts of the published form may be updated and may not be identical to screen prints here.

The three links to the NWS pages only need to populated one time and do not need to be changed from week to week if you update previous forms to create agendas or notes. Populate each of the three links with the a link for your group (NWS "Community") from the NWS Community Links page.

First, click on the <Get Meeting Information Link> link. That takes you to the NWS Community Links page page. (All three of the links in the template's table take you to the same place.)

There, right-click on the link and copy the link.

Next, right-click on the text <Get Meeting Information Link> and select Edit Hyperlink... from the menu.

In the Edit Hyperlink dialog box (Office 2019 for Windows shown here), paste the hyperlink Address.

Enter the Text to display and ScreenTip fields.

Here are recommended Text to display values for the three NWS links:

Meeting Information

Action Items

Attendance Report

Here are recommended ScreenTip values for the links:

Link to NWS Meeting Information

Link to NWS Action Items

Link to NWS Attendance Report

Hyperlink ScreenTips are required for Accessibility conformance.

Click OK in the Set Hyperlink ScreenTip box and OK in the Edit Hyperlink box.

Repeat the steps until all three links are populated. The Action Items link should be copied to the Review Action Items table (Section 5.1). It is probably a good idea to test the links. This is what the populated links should look like:

Opening Questions & Statements

No preparation is required for the Opening Questions & Statements section.

Previous Notes Review and Approval

Enter link to previous notes on NENA Workspace

To get the link (1) to the previous meeting notes, follow these steps:

Type a label for a link in the "Link to previous notes on NENA Workspace" in the form yyyymmdd Notes.
Log on to NWS from your browser.
Click on Communities/My Communities/
Select your group (community) from the Community Navigator box.
Click the Workspace tab.
Select Documents.
In the Documents folder selector box, select the Notes folder.
In the Notes folder, click on the name of the notes file for the last meeting.
Copy the URL (all of the characters in your browser's address bar).
Edit the hyperlink text. (Right-click the text and select Edit Hyperlink... .
Paste the hyperlink you copied in Step 9 into the Address: field.
Click on ScreenTip... and add the screen tip Link to download Notes.
Click OK and OK to exit Edit Hyperlink.

Previous Notes Review and Approval Disposition

If your group requires that acceptance of previous notes be formally approved with a motion, second, and vote, add labels for those steps when preparing the agenda:

Place the cursor in the field below the text Disposition.
Add Motion to Accept: and Second: and enter a carriage return.

Many groups simply consider the previous notes to be approved if no one objects. For them, no additional preparation is required.

Agenda Review and Approval

If your group requires that agendas be formally approved with a motion, second, and vote, add labels for those steps when preparing the agenda:

Place the cursor in the field below the text Disposition.
Add Motion to Accept: and Second: and enter a carriage return.

Many groups simply consider the agenda approved if no one objects. For them, no additional preparation is required.

Announcements

The meeting organizer may choose to prepare the Announcements section for anticipated announcements prior to the meeting.

To add rows to the announcement table, follow these steps.

Click somewhere in the row that you want to copy/paste (1).
Click the + sign (2).
The row is automatically copied and pasted directly below, expanding the table.
Do this as many times as necessary to expand the table to the correct number of anticipated announcement sources.
Enter the names or roles of those expected to make an announcement. If announcements have been provided to the meeting organizer, they could be entered prior to the meeting.

Agenda Categories

Agenda Items and Tasks are divided into three categories that appear in the order that they are expected to be discussed in the meeting.

First Actions

"First Actions" are agenda items that should be addressed before any other items. There are several reasons that agenda items would be in this category:

Some attendees or guests involved with the topic may have limited time to participate.
Some items will take only a short time and the remaining items may consume the rest of the meeting.
Some items are time-sensitive and need to be addressed before the next scheduled meeting.

Action Items

The first designated Item in First Actions is Review Action Items.

Copy the Action Items link from the NWS links table and paste it here:

No further action for the Agenda preparation is required but the Agenda preparer may choose to add background or links to documents that will be shared when discussing Action Items.

Unfinished Business

Agenda items from previous meetings are included in this category. When preparing the agenda, it is recommended that only a brief summary of the topic and condensed discussion notes from the previous meeting be included in the peach-colored Agenda Items heading. Keeping extended previous notes in the agenda item heading is not recommended.

New Business

Agenda items not previously discussed are included in the category.

Agenda Items

The general form for Agenda Items include the peach-colored agenda section and the blue meeting section:

The Agenda Item: <Title> section shows the one or two line title. The Title row gets repeated when the table extends to additional pages. Replace <Title> with a short title.

The second row will contain the supporting background information. This may be a short summary of previous discussions. If documents are expected to be shared, links to them may help the presenter open them quickly. Because this second row in Agenda Items may have more material, it is not duplicated when the table extends to additional pages.

The ADM-008 template file contains Agenda Item tables for each of the three categories: First Actions, Unfinished Business, and New Business. Duplicating Agenda Items and Tasks is easy. The instructions for using the duplication feature are below.

How to set up Agenda Items

The peach-colored header section contains the Agenda Item title (bold) and below it, the background for the topic or a summary of the last meeting notes. The blue "Discussion Summary" section should contain no text prior to the meeting.

Here are the suggested steps to set up an Agenda Item:

Replace Agenda Item with a title for the topic to be discussed.
On the line below the title, enter the background information about the topic. The background should include links to any documents or sites that are expected to be opened during the meeting. This not only saves time during the meeting but also gives attendees the opportunity to preview the material before the meeting.
When applicable, include a brief summary from the last time this topic was discussed. Note: Accumulating all previous meeting notes is not recommended.

Do not enter information in the Discussion Summary section prior to the meeting. That section is reserved for notes taken during (or after) the meeting. The notes in this section are intended for one meeting only. When preparing an agenda for the next meeting, the preparer may copy the notes from the Discussion Summary into the peach-colored Agenda Item section for the next meeting's agenda.

How to duplicate Agenda Items

Only one Agenda Item and Task is included in the basic form. An automatic duplication feature can be used to duplicate the Agenda Item and Task table. The duplication feature copies the selected table and its contents and pastes the copy directly below it. If you know how many Agenda Items you need for your meeting preparation, copy the blank tables first, using this process:

Click somewhere in the peach-colored field (1) to select the table.
Click the green + sign (2) to duplicate the Agenda Item.

Repeat the process until you have enough Agenda Items.

If you need to add more items after you've entered information in them, you can duplicate a filled-in table and edit the contents as needed.

How to delete Agenda Items

To delete a duplicated Agenda Item, right-click somewhere in the table (1) and then click on Delete Agenda (2). This method may not work for the original template's Agenda Items.

Zoom Attendance Report

The Zoom Attendance Report is where the attendance details from the Zoom meeting are copied after the meeting. No preparation of this section is needed prior to the meeting except deleting text from a prior meeting if you are using the previous meeting notes form as the template for the agenda.

In-Meeting Chat

The In-Meeting Chat section is where the In-Meeting Chat contents are copied at the end of the meeting. No preparation of this section is needed prior to the meeting except deleting text from a prior meeting if you are using the previous meeting notes form as the template for the agenda.

Check Accessibility

Run the accessibility test. Click on the Review tab, then Check Accessibility in the Accessibility group.

Saving the Agenda

The recommended file name format when saving an Agenda file is Agenda <group name> YYYYMMDD.docx, e.g. Agenda References WG 20200331.docx. Agenda files are uploaded to the Agenda folder in the group's NENA Workspace documents section. If an agenda is revised after it is posted, the revised agenda should be uploaded as a revision to the previously saved agenda file.

Taking Notes

The designated note-taker will use the ADM-008 Agenda form as the basis for taking the meeting's notes.

Preparing the ADM-008 form for note-taking

In preparation for a meeting, the note-taker edits a copy of the agenda for the meeting by unchecking the Agenda check box in the form's header and checking the Notes box instead.

Attendance

At the beginning of the meeting, either the meeting host or a meeting co-host should review the Zoom Participants Panel to identify participants in the meeting that do not have their full name displayed or only show a phone number. Names should include both a first and last name and phone numbers should be changed to the full name of the caller.

There are two goals for this process:

Let everyone know who is in the meeting. Identifying meeting participants is a normal business courtesy.
Verify that the names of the callers are correct. Zoom participant names are a back-up to the NWS attendance and may contain names of guests or other parties who are not listed in the NWS group roster.

Opening Questions & Statements

If there are responses to the Opening Questions & Statements in Section 1, they should be recorded in the right-hand column as suggested.

IPR Policy and Patent IPR

If there is a response, note all disclosures here, including name of individual making the disclosure, employer, brief description of the disclosure (the official disclosure will be the responsibility of the individual making it, or their employer, and will be on the applicable official form), and Patent Number(s) (if provided).

Duplication of Work

If there is a response, enter the details of the conflict and the identity of the group performing the duplicative work.

Previous Notes Review and Approval

When the previous notes are reviewed, the results should be entered in the Disposition field. If the group's policy requires a formal motion, second, discussion, and vote on the acceptance of the previous notes, the details of that process are entered. Some groups simply consider the previous notes to be approved if no one objects and enter "Approved" in the Disposition field.

Agenda Review and Approval

Agenda changes should be made with a note and a brief summary of the changes made in the Disposition field. If the group's policy requires a formal motion, second, discussion, and vote on the acceptance of the agenda, the details of that process are entered. Some groups simply consider the agenda approved if no one objects and enter "Approved" in the Disposition field.

Announcements

If there are any announcements, enter the name of the person making the announcement and the summary of the announcement. If you need more rows for unexpected announcements, add rows as shown above.

Agenda Items in First Actions, Unfinished Business and New Business

Enter the essential summaries of the discussions and any decisions made in the Discussion Summary field of each item. If an Agenda Item starts near the end of a page such that there are only a few lines left on the page for the notes, consider adding a page break before the Agenda Item so that the entire Agenda Item and its notes are pushed down to start at the top of the next page rather than being split onto two pages. This may be especially beneficial when the Agenda Item's background information is lengthy.

Adding Graphics

If graphics (like screen prints) are added to the notes, they must be annotated with "alternative text" in order to conform to accessibility guidelines. To do this in Word, select the graphic, right click, then select "Edit Alt Text."

Meeting Adjournment

Record the time the meeting ended, including the time zone. If you did not record the time at the end of the meeting, you can check the Zoom Usage Report and use the time when most members disconnected from the call.

Zoom Attendance Report

"After the meeting is over, the Zoom Usage Report attendance information must be placed into the form. It may be entered manually or copied from the Zoom Usage Report and pasted into the form. The Zoom Usage Report is available at https://Zoom.us. It is not available through other zoom URLs.

[Other variations for capturing the attendance information may be used, as long as the attendance is captured accurately.]

Please note: The following method results in only the names being added to the notes. It is not appropriate to put members' phone numbers or other related information in the Notes.

How To Download Zoom Usage Report

Sign in to Zoom with the NENA Committee credentials but uncheck the "Stay signed in" box to avoid having your identity always reflect the Committee name when you join other NENA zoom calls.

Upon logging in you will be located on the Zoom Administrative panel. Click on Reports,

DON’T USE the Export to csv file link.

Next click on Usage.

If the desired meeting is not displayed, change the dates in the search line and click on Search.

Note that reports can be retrieved for the last 12 months, with a search range of up to one month at a time.

Find the Zoom meeting you need the attendance from (confirm date and time since there may be multiple meetings on the same date) and click on the "number" in the Participants column.

Check the Export with meeting data box and the Show unique users box (if present). Then click on Export to download the CSV file.

Note that sometimes the export may take a few moments, and the browser may not know that the download is complete. Check to see if it appears where you saved it to before closing your browser. If it is there you can close your browser and proceed to the next step.

Open the CSV file in Excel, sort the table alphabetically by name, and copy just the names in the Name column.

Place the cursor in the <Paste Zoom Attendance here> area and select Word's "Keep Text Only (T)" paste option.

In-Meeting Chat

The In-Meeting Chat is automatically saved to your computer during the meeting in a .txt file. The default location is a new subfolder under the computer's /Documents/Zoom folder, named with the meeting name, current date, and time. Chat content is continuously added to the .txt file during the meeting.

After the meeting, navigate to /Documents/Zoom/<Folder with meeting name, date and time> and open the .txt file. Copy the contents of the file.

Place the cursor in the <Paste relevant In-Meeting Chat notes here> area and select Word's "Keep Text Only (T)" paste option.

Note: If the In-Meeting Chat content includes your messages ("From <Committee Name> to Everyone"), use Word's Replace function to replace "From <Committee Name> to Everyone" with "From <Your Name> to Everyone." You may also want to delete private messages you may have sent or private messages others sent to you.

Check Accessibility

Run the accessibility test. Click on the Review tab, then Check Accessibility in the Accessibility group.

Saving the Notes

The recommended file name format when saving a Notes file is Notes <group name> YYYYMMDD.docx, e.g. Notes References WG 20200331.docx. Notes files are uploaded to the Notes folder in the group's NENA Workspace documents section. If Notes are revised after they are posted, the revised Notes should be uploaded as a revision to the previously saved Notes file.