The document read provides minutes of a meeting that involved college faculty members. This meeting was held at the end of the year. The writing is presented by the secretary of the faculty meeting since this is the person who has the role of taking minutes in a meeting. The story being told in this document is the issues, which affect both tutors and students while learning in college. This includes matters related to discipline of students in both academic and social environment, as well as the administration of the teaching programs by tutors. The minutes also reviewed what had been done during the year and benchmarks placed for the next academic year.
Where could this lead a researcher?
The archival material presented in the document is informative. It provides a systematic process of how the meeting of the faculty members took place including the issues that were discussed in this meeting. This involves identification of the members and their role. Such a presentation is effective and a researcher is able to comprehend how the meeting progressed effectively. A researcher would eventually end into focusing on how the recording of the minutes took place.
What questions does it prompt?
Possible questions for the researcher would include:
1. Was there an alteration of the minutes after the meeting took place?
2. What types of recording materials were used in the process of writing these minutes?
3. Do the minutes illustrate effectively the events that took place during the research process?
4. What would have been the challenges that one would experience while recording the minutes for this meeting?
5. Why were these minutes placed in an archive?
Answering of these questions would provide a platform for the researcher to gain more insight with reference to these minutes and events that unfolded during the meeting that took place.
What historical arguments or conclusions could you possibly draw from this material? Why?
It is believed that meetings, which have recordings in terms of minutes, tend to be more efficient and effective in comparison to meetings without minutes. This is because all the decisions that are made during the meeting are recorded and action items for the meeting are easily tracked. On the same note, people who miss the sessions of meetings are able to familiarize themselves with key actions that took place in the meeting. Minutes for the meeting also record the outcome and procedure that was involved in the meeting.
Where would you go next to look for more information?
After reading this document, one would visit the college and provide the date and time for these minutes in order to obtain further information from the staff members. Such information may also be obtained by interviewing any person who was present during the meeting.
