It’s always struck me as odd that executives take on roles like Parking Lot Keeper, Treasurer, Retreat Coordinator, and Timekeeper in forums—roles they’d typically delegate in their own companies. The confidentiality intrinsic to Forum environments prevents them from outsourcing these tasks, as too much personal and sensitive information is discussed.
However, everything is about to change, thanks to A.I.
I won’t dive into a detailed explanation of A.I. Instead, I suggest that Forums use AI to replace some of these typical roles. With AI advancing faster than the sea level around Florida, my suggestions might seem outdated in six months, but we need to start somewhere.
Starting with the Parking Lot Keeper
The most obvious role to start with is the Parking Lot Keeper. This role involves recording what’s said during the monthly updates—a tedious task that distracts the keeper from fully participating in the meeting. A.I. offers a better solution.
A.I. can replace the Parking Lot Keeper and do a better job. Numerous A.I. meeting recording tools exist (e.g., Zapier’s Best A.I. Meeting Assistants), but their outputs often don’t meet the specific needs of a Forum meeting. Typical Forum meetings require specific core updates from each participant:
- One word describing the past 30 days
- Ranking for each area of life
- Highs and lows in each area
Instead of using a prebuilt A.I. tool, I recommend recording the monthly updates with a voice recording app on your phone. Upload the audio file to an A.I. tool like ChatGPT or Claude, and use a tailored prompt to generate the desired output.
Creating the Right Prompt
Here’s an example of a prompt you might use:
“This is an audio recording of a meeting with 7 participants. Each person shared an update from the past 30 days, including 1) one word to describe their feelings for the past 30 days (positive, negative, or neutral), 2) a ranking of 1-10 for their personal life, career, and family/friends/community (FFC), and 3) high points and low points in their personal life, career, and FFC. There was also some Q&A following each update. Please provide an Excel file with these details for each participant.”
Addressing Privacy Concerns
Privacy concerns are valid, but here’s my counterpoint: ChatGPT has a temporary chat feature, allowing you to ask questions without recording or saving the conversation. By deleting the audio recording and using temporary chat, no record of the meeting will exist beyond the parking lot document.
Conclusion
I plan to continue showing Forums how AI can improve their operations. For now, try out this process for your Parking Lot recordings. Until next time, here’s to enhancing your Forum experience with AI!