Agendas

To facilitate planning and collaboration, we work with agenda repositories. An agenda repository is a shared GitHub repository with a README.md file to keep track of meeting notes, TODOs, and items to discuss. It serves as a single location to track information that can be linked and edited by all participants.

Checklist for agendas

Use the following checklist to keep your agenda repository a practical, living resource for planning, coordination, and reflection.

NoteChecklist

1. Make the agenda your own

• Keep in mind: the agenda will remain a private repository, shared between you and your supervisor.
• Treat the agenda as a shared but informal working document (no perfection needed).
• Adapt the structure to your personal workflow.
• Use it regularly as your primary planning resource.

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2. Update the agenda regularly

• Define and revisit shared objectives and key results (OKRs) together.
• Proactively maintain development objectives, milestones, evidence, and upcoming activities.
• Include planned shadowing, internal presentations, publication contributions, and networking where relevant.
• Maintain a list of major ongoing projects.
• Keep a running “Items to Discuss” section.
• Maintain a weekly task list:
  • Check off completed items.
  • Copy unfinished items to the next week.
• Share a link to meeting notes before the meeting.
• Add meeting notes directly after each meeting.

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3. Create a clear overview

• Keep orientation easy: structure before detail.
• Use folders and multiple documents where helpful.
• Add internal links between sections.
• Link to relevant external resources (repos, docs, papers, courses).
• Ensure the agenda can be understood quickly by all participants.

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4. Maintain a timeline and planning view

• Create a Mermaid Gantt chart with sections for Studies, Contract, Development, Responsibilities, Skills, and Milestones.
• Give every Mermaid task a unique ID so dependencies remain unambiguous.
• Track contracts and important deadlines.
• Keep an overview of workload / hours.
• Plan development goals (topics, methods, skills).
• Map current and future projects over time.

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5. Anticipate and track key periods

• Note upcoming vacations.
• Mark exam phases or teaching peaks.
• Maintain “waiting-for” items (e.g., reviews, decisions, responses).
• Maintain “upcoming” items (projects, papers, milestones).

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6. Document interests and ideas

• Keep a section for research and teaching interests.
• Collect ideas for new projects.
• Use this as input for strategic discussions about next steps.

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7. Document and celebrate success

• Record accepted/published papers.
• Add positive student feedback.
• Note milestones and accomplishments.
• Use this as a basis for CV building and reference letters.
• Regularly reflect on progress to stay motivated.

How We Use the Agenda in Meetings

1. Review Session (Looking Back)

At the beginning of each meeting, we:

• Review the weekly task list
• Check off completed items
• Reflect briefly on progress toward shared objectives
• Discuss blockers or “waiting-for” items
• Add short notes directly into the repository

The agenda is updated live during the meeting.

2. Planning Session (Looking Ahead)

In the second part of the meeting, we:

• Define or adjust objectives together
• Break down larger goals into concrete next steps
• Clarify responsibilities and expectations
• Identify priorities for the coming week
• Add new tasks directly to the weekly section

This ensures alignment and clear next actions.

3. Use of Issues and Links

To avoid duplication and keep information structured:

• Use GitHub issues for well-defined tasks and discussions
• Link concrete deliverables to GitHub issues instead of copying operational task lists into the agenda
• Link issues directly in the agenda
• Link to relevant repositories, documents, datasets, or papers
• Use the agenda as a coordination hub — not as a storage location

The agenda serves as a shared navigation layer across distributed work.

Personal employment and development details stay in the private agenda repository and must not be added to the public handbook.

Template

Clone the agenda template repository.

# Agenda: Person A -- Person B

Regular meeting:

- Time: ...
- Location: ...

## Items to discuss

- Item

## Log

### CW 1

- Meeting note

Add a planning view using the recommended sections. Dates below are placeholders; every task ID is unique.

gantt
    title Individual planning view
    dateFormat YYYY-MM-DD
    section Studies
    Study period                 :studies_period, 2026-01-01, 90d
    section Contract
    Contract period              :contract_period, 2026-01-01, 180d
    section Development
    Shadow a planning session    :development_shadow, 2026-01-15, 14d
    Internal presentation        :development_presentation, after development_shadow, 30d
    section Responsibilities
    Current responsibility       :responsibility_current, 2026-01-01, 60d
    section Skills
    Complete selected training   :skill_training, 2026-01-10, 30d
    section Milestones
    Development review           :milestone, milestone_review, 2026-03-31, 0d

Replace the examples with links to objectives or GitHub issues; do not duplicate issue task lists in the chart.

Resources

• Agenda: Example GitLab/Rayana