Note-Taking at Meetings: What's the Point?

by Room 215 23 Replies latest social current

  • Nosferatu
    Nosferatu

    The whole shorthand thing made me remember something. I created my own alphabet when I was a kid, believe it or not. I used it to write stuff in the books I was studying, or even the WT magazines. The funny thing is I can still read my own alphabet. I should've been smart and wrote stories and poems instead of notes. Nobody would've known what the hell I wrote anyway.

  • Doubtfully Yours
    Doubtfully Yours

    Robots!!!

    DY

  • jwbot
    jwbot

    I doodled...to stay awake. At assemblies, a couple times, I sat with my boyfriend and his friends and discovered their little game. One would start drawing an image of a person and pass it to the next person and they would draw a little bit more, etc. The end result was hilarious! It was quite fun.

    I contribute this to my ADD and general OCD but I am a list maker...I make lists of everything. In fact, I am in class right now with my laptop and I keep lists as text documents on my desktop, here are my current lists:

    apartment requirements (things I want in a new place)
    documentary list (things I want/need to do for my capstone)
    photo printing (places and prices of B&W printing)
    shopping list (food)
    tax returns (what I want to do with the refund money)
    and lastly: my to-do list

    Now my question is....what does not mean? am I crazy?

  • Mulan
    Mulan

    Note taking helped me pay attention. I always did it in school too, and at business meetings now. The information imprints in my mind better if I take notes. It doesn't work that way for everyone though.

  • harleyquinn
    harleyquinn

    funny blondie should mention shorthand....i actually used my notepads to practice shorthand...stopped taking actual 'notes' on the talks when i was about 12..

  • La Capra
    La Capra

    I developed a theory around the age of 11 (when it completely hit me that there was a glass ceiling at about 3 1/2 feet for the female types in the WTBTS) that the note taking was posing, rather than meaningful. None of the men took notes....why? Because they held the power, and didn't need to jockey as much for position. The women had no power so they did the one thing they could in front everyone to show how important they were, they took notes. The only women who held actual power (not position, like pioneers, who got dumped on more than listened to) were the elders' wives. And lo and behold, they rarely, if ever, took notes. I did a case study on two couples, when I was in my teens. When the husbands first started to reach for "privileges," the wives started to answer more and take notes. When the husbands were appointed MS, the wives took notes furiously. When the husbands became elders, the wives toned down the notes, and within a few months quit taking notes altogether. But the wives sure lorded their position over everyone else. I felt really bad for one of the couples, because when they first started coming around, they were a really nice, down to earth couple, with a couple of wild little kids. The kids turned into robots and the wife eventually slipped into a very sad and meloncholy state.

    Don't know why I remembered tracking those two couples, but, like everyone else, I was bored at meetings and needed something to do. I followed the power shifts.

    Shoshana

  • santacruzchick
    santacruzchick

    Taking notes as a kid @ the KH did prove useful, it better prepared me for college....though maybe it wasn't as useful as I initially thought, I think I drew more than took notes, and that hasn't changed.

  • RebelliousSpirit
    RebelliousSpirit
    I contribute this to my ADD and general OCD but I am a list maker...I make lists of everything. In fact, I am in class right now with my laptop and I keep lists as text documents on my desktop, here are my current lists:

    apartment requirements (things I want in a new place)
    documentary list (things I want/need to do for my capstone)
    photo printing (places and prices of B&W printing)
    shopping list (food)
    tax returns (what I want to do with the refund money)
    and lastly: my to-do list

    Now my question is....what does not mean? am I crazy?

    If you're crazy, then so am I. I am a list maker and a note taker as well.

    I am willing to bet it's the OCD, because I also have OCD. Lists are a way to keep things organized and under control. Note taking is a way of visually organizing your thoughts. People with OCD have so much going on in our brains that it's almost paramount to put everything "on paper". Giving in to the compulsion eases the obsessions I guess.

    Why do I take notes at meetings? I don't know. Partly the OCD. Partly because I went to college, and you just come to associate a "learning atmosphere" with note taking. I never thought about it until recently, when I actually looked at my husband and said, "I do NOT feel like taking notes ANYMORE!" - it would appear that my autopilot button finally came unstuck. LOL!

  • eyeslice
    eyeslice

    I have been in to mind maps for a long time.

    I used mind maps to record a mental picture of public talks - I was often surprised when I looked at them later - the talks had little structure or argument. With a good talk, I would almost be able to give the talk myself with little or no preparation.

    Eyeslice

  • SecretA
    SecretA

    Note-taking to me is beneficial because the same notes you take at kingdom hall you can use in field ministry. Say the talk is on trinity. I would definately take notes because i could you what the bro said in the ministry to those who are having trouble with that subject.

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