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Group project meetings have a familiar shape. Everyone talks for an hour, people leave feeling productive, and a week later nobody can remember who said they'd write the methods section. The same thing happens in club and student organization meetings, just with event budgets instead of slide decks.
The fix isn't longer meetings. It's better notes: what was decided, who's doing what, and by when. This guide covers how to run and record a student meeting, then how to do it with Scribba's Meeting Notes template.
Before the meeting: write a short agenda
An agenda is just a list of what the meeting needs to cover. Without one, the group drifts toward whatever's easiest to talk about.
- Keep it to three to five items. If there are more, some probably belong in the next meeting or a group chat.
- Phrase items as questions to answer. "Topic for the presentation" is vague. "Pick the topic and split the sections" tells the group what done looks like.
- Put the hardest item first, while everyone still has energy.
- Share it before you meet, even as a quick message, so people come ready.
The first meeting of a group project is the most important one. Its agenda should cover the basics: what the assignment actually asks for, how the work splits, internal deadlines that come well before the real one, and how the group will stay in touch.
During the meeting: notes on decisions, not a transcript
The person taking notes doesn't need to write down everything. Aim for three things:
- Decisions. "We're doing the topic on urban heat islands." "Event is moved to the 14th." These are the lines people will look for later.
- Open questions. Anything the group couldn't settle, and who will find out.
- Action items. Every task that comes out of the meeting.
Tip: rotate the note-taker. If the same person takes notes every time, they end up doing the group's admin work and get less say in the discussion.
Make every action item specific
An action item needs three parts: what, who and when. "Research" isn't an action item. "Maya finds three sources on heat island effects by Thursday" is. If a task has no owner, it usually doesn't get done. If two people own it, each tends to assume the other is on it. Give every item one name.
Before the meeting ends, read the action items aloud. It takes a minute, catches misunderstandings, and makes it much harder for anyone to say later that they didn't know.
After the meeting: send a recap
Within a day, send the group a short recap: the decisions and the action items, with owners and dates. That's it. It becomes the shared record of what was agreed.
Start the next meeting by going through the last meeting's action items. Done, in progress or stuck? It keeps people accountable without anyone having to chase.
For clubs and student organizations, these notes become the minutes. Keeping them in one place means next year's officers can see how events were planned, what the budget looked like and which ideas were already tried.
Meeting notes in Scribba
Scribba is an iPad notebook app for students, and its paper picker has a Meeting Notes template laid out for exactly this. The page has:
- DATE, TIME and LOCATION lines,
- ATTENDEES lines,
- a numbered AGENDA,
- a NOTES area,
- and ACTION ITEMS with an OWNER column.
The printed labels are blank fields for you to fill in. Write the agenda before the meeting starts, take notes underneath during it, and fill in action items as they come up, with a name in the owner column for each one. There's no separate due date column, so write the date into the item itself, like "draft intro, Thu."
One notebook per project or club
Make a notebook for each group project or organization, and add a Meeting Notes page for every meeting. Pull past the last page to add one, then set its paper from the page sidebar. Add a named bookmark for each meeting, like "Meeting 3: split sections," and the notebook's table of contents becomes a list of every meeting. For keeping project notebooks next to your class notebooks, see how to organize iPad notes by semester.
Find your action items later
Scribba searches handwriting, from the library or inside a notebook. Search for your own name and you'll find every action item you were given, across every meeting page. More on how it works in search handwriting on iPad.
Send the recap
Scribba has no live collaboration or shared notebooks, so the group won't write on the same page. To send the recap, you have a few options:
- Share the page as an image from the page sidebar, straight into the group chat.
- Export selected pages or the whole notebook as PDF, which anyone can open without Scribba.
- Copy or share the page's handwriting as typed text, then paste it into a message or email and tidy it up.
For more on working with classmates, including sharing flashcard decks, see how to study with a group using iPad notes.
Recording a meeting
Scribba can record while you write and link your notes to the audio, which can help when you're taking notes and also trying to take part. Only record if everyone in the meeting agrees first. Recording rules vary by school and location, so check your school's policy if you're unsure.
Frequently asked questions
Who should take notes in a group meeting?
Rotate it. A different note-taker each meeting shares the work and keeps one person from being stuck as the group's secretary.
Can my group edit the same meeting notes in Scribba?
No. Scribba doesn't have shared notebooks. Share the page as an image, export it as a PDF, or share its handwriting as text.
Does the Meeting Notes template have a due date column?
No. It has ACTION ITEMS with an OWNER column, so write the due date into each action item.