Talk:Meeting best practices (including remote staff)

Merge with Good meetings?

This page looks like it's begging to be merged with Good meetings, which was my guidance for people running sessions at WikiDev '16. This version of the document appears to have historically evolved from a list of gripes that people had, and now appears to be a checklist that will likely make people want to walk away and say "meetings are too hard...I just won't have one". Good meetings that are thoughtfully constructed are a good use of people's time.

I started looking at this page after talking to Joel last week after the Dev Summit, who asked that I file about Phab:T122987. I've done that, but I'm questioning if putting my minute taking suggestions into this document is going to be a good use of time. I think I'd like to collaborate with someone in TPG on generally improving our meeting practice (my time permitting). Any takers? -- RobLa-WMF (talk) 20:40, 12 January 2016 (UTC)

It seems like there should be a quick/light bare minimum for having a non-tragic meeting, and then a separate page with all the details. I could also imagine splitting the content between what meeting attendees need to know, versus meeting planners/facilitators. I can also see that a narrative form would work for some people, but more of a checklist/menu would be more effective for others. I would be willing to try some collaboration, time permitting, to see what would make sense for these two pages. --KSmith (WMF) (talk) 22:34, 12 January 2016 (UTC)

Thanks Kevin! I think you're right. The title should probably take a cue from w:WP:NC. I think we can have a structure like this:

• Meetings - overview page with everything everyone should know, written in summary style linking to the pages below. Like you said: "bare minimum for having a non-tragic meeting". Since this title already exists, it may be Good meetings is the title to use.
  • Meeting planning or Meeting facilitation - advice for planning a meeting
  • Meeting planning/Checklist - the exhaustive list of everything a meeting planner should think of
  • Remote meetings - advice for planning a meeting that includes remote attendees. It may be best just to include everything in Meeting planning; let's see how it sorts out.

A checklist can be fine, but too many details feels overly micromanage-y in nature (e.g. the "Timing that accommodates everyone" section) and gets us into "tl;dr" territory. The Phab:T122987 information doesn't need to be at the top leve, but can probably find a good home in the Meeting planning or Meeting facilitation page.-- RobLa-WMF (talk) 01:45, 13 January 2016 (UTC)

I have no idea what the current Meetings page did, but it's pretty clear it isn't doing it any more, so it should probably be renamed or archived. Aside from that, I mostly agree with your thinking. I would strongly prefer to keep remotie issues in the main page. I probably average 4-5 meetings per day, and 90% or more involve at least one remotie. --KSmith (WMF) (talk) 20:03, 13 January 2016 (UTC)

The current Meetings page probably needs to be merged with the current Tech talks page, so that the 2012-2014 proto-tech talks aren't lost. Any wikignome out there want to take that on? -- RobLa-WMF (talk) 00:37, 15 January 2016 (UTC)

Speaking of the "overly micromanagy" bit, this seems relevant: w:WP:BLOAT -- RobLa-WMF (talk) 21:16, 15 January 2016 (UTC)