Managing AI Notetaking Bots in Special District Meetings

By Kristin Withrow posted 04-28-2025 01:53 PM

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By Beth Ziesenis, Your Nerdy Best Friend and our 2025 General Manager Summit Keynote Speaker

By now, you’ve probably seen an AI notetaking bot pop up in one of your online meetings. Maybe it was Otter.ai, Fireflies.ai, or some other bot quietly capturing every word. These tools promise to make meetings smoother, improve accessibility, and help keep records straight. Sounds great, right? Well, not so fast. They also come with a laundry list of challenges, especially when it comes to privacy, compliance, and meeting governance.

And because of your governmental roles, you have extra issues. Here’s a quick reference to the perks and the pitfalls of these AI-powered notetakers.

The Upside of AI Notetaking Bots

There’s a lot to love about AI notetakers:

Spot-On Records – They capture everything, so you get precise, comprehensive meeting minutes.
Better Focus – You can actually engage in the discussion and make eye contact with colleagues instead of frantically scribbling notes.
Instant Summaries – No more excuses when it comes to accountability. Many bots generate action items and recap meetings automatically.
Quick Info Retrieval – Some let you “chat” with the transcript to find key details in seconds, just like you can with ChatGPT.
Attendance Flexibility – AI notetakers can fill in when someone misses a meeting or arrives late.
Easy Sharing – Did you forget to send the wrap-up email to the meeting attendees? Your notetaker can provide a link to notes and transcripts with a click.
Affordable Options – Many of these tools are free or budget-friendly so you don’t have to fret about this budget line item.

The Challenges of AI Notetaking Bots

Yes, they’re awesome. And yes, they can be dangerous. Here are just a few of the challenges that can pop up with notetaking bots.

Privacy and Confidentiality – Consider this horror story: a woman interviewed online for a job. She left the call thinking she had nailed it. Her notetaker stayed in the room, and she was mortified about the negative things the interviewers said after she left. AI notetakers don’t discriminate between public discussions and sensitive information.
Legal & Compliance Issues – You gotta love it when the lawyers get involved. Special districts must follow open meeting laws, public records regulations, and internal policies.
Unauthorized Recordings – What if someone invites an AI bot without telling the group? It happens more often than you’d think.
Breakout Room Confusion – AI bots might be assigned to their own breakout rooms, where they can randomly record another group’s conversations.
Data Security Risks – Some AI tools use meeting transcripts to train their models. That’s a big deal if your meeting contains confidential or proprietary information, and a really big deal for special districts.

Six Steps to Keep AI Notetaking Bots in Check

The worst thing your special district could do is to ignore the problem. Notetaking bots are here to stay, and the sooner you add guardrails to their use, the better.

Step 1: Set a Clear Policy

Even if your special district hasn’t formalized an AI policy, you should set up guidelines for AI notetaking bots. Your policy should include:

Which meetings can and can’t be recorded.
Whether external participants can use AI notetakers.
Compliance with California’s Brown Act and other transparency laws.
Data security measures to protect confidential info.

Step 2: Pick an Official AI Notetaker

If your district wants to use AI notetaking, choose an official tool and standardize it across meetings. This will…

Help your staffers know what’s allowed.
Keep your meeting records consistent.
Ensure compliance with regulations.
Prevent random AI bots from crashing your meetings.

Step 3: Be Upfront About Recordings

If AI notetakers are in use, make it obvious with these easy steps:

Announce AI-assisted note-taking at the start of the meeting.
Add a disclaimer to your meeting invites.
Require participants to acknowledge recording policies before joining (just like Zoom notifications that pop up in recording meetings).

Step 4: Lock Down Your Meeting Settings

Use the features of your videoconferencing platform to cut down on unwanted notetakers and inappropriate recordings.

If the meeting is in house, look for the setting to require authentication so only authorized participants (and bots) can join.
Microsoft Teams and other platforms may let you block third-party app permissions.
It’s always a good idea to enable the waiting room feature to prevent Zoom bombers. And it gives you the opportunity to screen non-human participants before letting them in.
If a bot gets past your pre-meeting lines of defense, use your meeting host power to kick them out.

Step 5: Stay on Top of AI Developments

By the time you finish reading this sentence, AI will have advanced even more. Your AI notetaking policy needs to change with the times.

Review AI notetaking policies periodically.
When your videoconference platform announces an update, don’t just click “Remind Me Later.” Read the popup screen with the new features to discover new ways to manage the high-tech challenges we never imagined.
Watch for changes to AI policies on the local, state and national level to stay in compliance.

Final Thoughts: Keeping AI Notetaking in Check

AI notetakers can make your life so much easier, but only if managed properly. By setting clear policies, using tech controls, and staying transparent, special districts leaders can make the most of AI tools while keeping meetings secure, compliant, and efficient. A little foresight now will save a lot of headaches down the road.

Beth Ziesenis is Your Nerdy Best Friend. She has written a whole shelf of books on apps and has spoken to more than 100 thousand audience members, including some at CSDA events. She will be our Day 2 Keynote Speaker at the 2025 General Manager Leadership Summit where she will elaborate on The Seven Things Your District Should be Doing with AI.