Tips for Stewards: How to take good notes

One of the most important things a Steward can do to help win grievances and even arbitrations is take good notes. This is especially important in Weingarten meetings where it is possible that a member could be disciplined or terminated and your Union Representative is not present. 

Good notes can be critical in making your member’s case. We’ve gathered some helpful note taking tips to remember when taking notes. 

The notes you take could be used in arbitration more than a year later. It’s important to capture what happened and share those notes with your Union Representative to help build our argument to advocate for our member.

During note taking 

Listen carefully

Don’t try to take word for word notes

Leave plenty of space to go back and add information

Ask questions to clarify

Take note of someone's tone if it feels important 

After note taking

Review and rewrite immediately

Fill in any gaps

Review with Your Union Representative

Reviewing your notes right after the meeting is the best way to capture what you learned during the meeting, you forget half of what you learned in a meeting in a few months and depending on the case the information you got could be helpful several months down the road. 

Don’t forget to keep your notes in a safe place and organized so you can get to them easily.