Who Knew?
There’s a common assumption in civic work that if you attend the meeting, you’ve done your part. You heard it directly. You were there for the presentation. The information came “from the source,” and that should count for something. Often, it does.
Raise your hand, though, if you’ve ever looked at your notes from a government presentation and realized there’s not a lot of there, there. You’re going to need something else to talk about at the next staff meeting.
Case in Point
A recent webinar about updates to the Pennsylvania Uniform Construction Code is a great example. The session was framed around major changes going into effect this year. Township officials joined with the understandable expectation that they would leave knowing what was different, what might affect inspections, and what questions could start surfacing Monday morning.
The presentation however was more focused on how the code is adopted, the structure behind it, and the limits of municipal authority. Great context, but zero practical application for township residents and contractors. The Q&A session that followed was little help.
Someone asked for a list of which regulations changed. Another had a specific question about EV charging requirements. Time frames for implementation. These felt like common-sense clarifications, but the responses were disappointingly inconclusive, referring attendees to additional online resources.
Takes All Kinds
And so it goes, sometimes, with government organizations. It’s not deliberate. It’s just not uncommon for the people in charge of making and implementing overarching policies to maybe not be the best communicators. Which just goes to show that expertise and operational clarity are not the same skill set.
If only the code engineers could see through the eyes of a township official trying to meet the needs of developers and property owners. What’s being enforced? What requires an updated ordinance? How about inspections? Whenever those questions are left hanging, that’s extra information to track down and make sense of when you have time.
Across a calendar full of meetings, webinars, briefings, and legislative updates, important details blur together. Weeks later, when you’re trying to draft a newsletter article or answer a board member’s follow-up, it can be frustrating to find little more concrete than a general impression.
Use Your Words
The good news is, today’s tools make it easy to document meetings as they happen, providing a searchable record for key details. A transcript shows what information is missing, as well, including the questions that surfaced and how they were answered.
A video recording is helpful, but it’s passive. You have to scrub through it, guessing where a particular detail might have been mentioned. A transcript turns that same hour into something you can actively work with. You can search it. Highlight it. Share a portion with a colleague. You can see, in black and white, where a question was answered clearly — and where it wasn’t.
Text changes how we process information. When something is written out, patterns emerge. Gaps become visible. What felt thorough in real time might read differently on the page. And when you’re trying to double-check an effective date or confirm enforcement language, nothing beats being able to search the exact wording.
Instead of relying on recollection, you can scan the actual text. Sometimes the transcript confirms that everything you needed was, in fact, covered. Sometimes it shows you exactly where to follow up.
Teamwork for the Win
Transcripts can also be a real time-saver, opening the door to productive cooperation. Coverage within the office can be divided intentionally. One person attends zoning updates. Another covers utilities. Another listens in on state-level briefings. With transcripts shared internally, a short summary can circulate, keeping everyone on the same page and primed for coordinated action.
To take it a step further, modern transcription workflows make the process even smoother. A first pass through a tool like Otter, Zoom, or Teams will give you a rough transcript. From there, you can clean up obvious mis-hearings and speaker labels. But don’t stop there.
Run this edited text through ChatGPT with a prompt that includes key context like names, acronyms, known policy references to instantly smooth the language without inventing details. When everyone has a clear transcript, it’s easy to extract impact points, identify follow-up questions, and shape communications of all kinds.
Service and Support
This internal efficiency strengthens outward-facing messaging, well. Once the substance of a meeting has been clarified and distilled, it becomes easier to explain what matters to residents in plain language.
The difference between “here is the governance framework behind the code” and “here is what changes for homeowners and contractors” is not trivial. One is information, the other is understanding. A procedural presentation rarely produces community-ready explanations on its own. The challenge remains twofold: to figure out what’s most relevant, and to craft it into clear, accessible language for a target audience. When a meeting ends, the real work begins — organizing what was said into something usable.
Local government runs on practical decisions. Permits. Inspections. Ordinances. Board packets. Phone calls from residents who just want to know what changed. The difference between sitting through a webinar and walking away prepared often comes down to whether the material was captured, examined, and translated with care.
Work smart, not hard. We’re happy to share how we turn even the techiest sessions into digestible content for office correspondence or community explainers. And if you’re interested in receiving occasional examples of how we approach municipal meeting summaries, you can join our e-newsletter or reach out directly.
Because the goal is never to attend more meetings — it’s to leave them with info you can use.
✨ Keep Exploring: If this kind of AI-assisted workflow intrigues you, we’ve got more where that came from — our series kicks off with Boost Your Workflow with ChatGPT Memory, where we show how to save time, stay organized, and keep your ideas at your fingertips.
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