A community: the next organiser starts from what you already know
Twelve volunteers, a venue that changes every year and a coordinator who moved away. The notebook remembers what the people cannot.
Taras has just agreed to coordinate the town’s charity run. Last year 400 people ran it, twelve volunteers made it happen, and the coordinator, Olena, knew everything: which sockets in the park pavilion work, who at the council signs the road closure, why the water station moved after the first year. In March Olena moved to another country. She left a folder with nine files and a two-hour voice message.
Taras has listened to the voice message twice. He has written down eleven things. He is sure there were more.
The run gets a memory that is not a person
The first thing Taras does is write the note he wishes Olena had written: five paragraphs for someone who joins tomorrow and knows nothing. What the run is, when, who does what, where the money comes from. He pins it. Then the nine files and the eleven things from the voice message go in, each with a line about why it matters.
The park pavilion gets its own note with the floor plan and, after the first site visit, photos of every socket. “Which socket works” stops being a question for a person who no longer lives in the country.
The decision about the stage
In April the team argues about whether to rent a stage this year. The chat goes on for three days. Taras moves it into two branches: stage from the rental company, no stage and a sound system on the pavilion steps. Each branch collects its costs and its worries, and the comparison lands on the criteria the twelve of them agreed on in the first meeting.
They choose the steps. The decision note is three lines with a date, a reason and a link to the comparison. In June, when a new volunteer asks why there is no stage, the answer is a link, and nobody has to remember the three-day argument.
A week after the finish line
The run happens. 430 people this time. A week later, while it still hurts, Taras and three volunteers fill in Lessons from last time: the queue at the registration tent, the water station that was right where Olena had moved it, the council contact who answers only before ten. Photos of the queue go in, because a picture explains it faster.
AI assembles a handover from the decisions, the checklists and the lessons; Taras reads it, fixes two things and accepts. He may coordinate again next year. He may not. Either way, whoever opens the notebook in March will know which socket works.
A festival, a charity run, a reading club, a parents’ committee. The team changes between seasons, and the person who knew how the venue’s electrics work has moved to another city. Below is how a community notebook is set up in Kartoteq so that the knowledge stays with the project, not with whoever happened to organise it last time.
How the notebook is laid out
Write the welcome note for a stranger
Create a notebook for the event and write Start here as if for someone who joins tomorrow and knows nothing: what the event is, when, who coordinates what, where the money comes from. Five paragraphs. Pin it. Every season, rewrite the dates and the names and leave the rest.
Invite the core team with the edit role. Volunteers who only need the schedule get view. When someone leaves, their access goes with them; when someone new arrives, they get the link and the pinned note, not a forwarded email thread.
Switch on AI if the team wants help: the interview asks what the event is for, what went wrong last time and what has to be decided by when. The sections it proposes can be renamed to the words your team already uses.
The venue has a note, and the note has photos
Everything about the place goes into Venue: the floor plan as PDF, photos of the power sockets and the fire exits, the contact of the caretaker, the clause from the rental contract about noise after ten. One line under each photo: what it shows and why it matters. Next year, “where was the second socket” is a search, not a phone call.
Checklists live in their own section as real checklists: setup day, event day, teardown. Tick them during the event from a phone in the browser; if the signal drops in the basement, the notes you opened earlier still work and sync later.
Personal data of participants stays out of the shared notebook unless the team really needs it there. A list of names and roles is fine; phone numbers go where only the coordinator can see them.
Decide in the notebook, not in the group chat
The chat is where things get said; the notebook is where they get kept. When the team settles something, one person writes it down in Decisions with the date and the reason, and @mentions whoever has to act. “Tents from the same supplier as last year: cheaper by a third, and they know the field.” Three lines.
If a question is big, give it two branches: a paid venue versus the park with permits. Each branch collects its own costs and its own worries; AI compares them by the criteria the team wrote down, and the consolidated note shows which branch each line came from.
Comments stay on the decision they concern. When someone asks in June why there is no stage this year, the answer is a link, and the argument from March is still readable.
Leave the lessons where the next team will trip over them
A week after the event, while it still hurts, fill in Lessons from last time: what worked, what did not, what to do differently, who to call. Not a report, a list. Attach the photos of the queue at the entrance; a picture explains the problem faster than a paragraph.
Ask AI to assemble a handover from the decisions, the checklists and the lessons. It drafts the document and shows which notes each paragraph rests on; the coordinator reads it, fixes what is wrong and accepts. That document is what the next coordinator opens first.
Then review access. Remove the people who have left, keep the notebook, and in eleven months someone you have never met will find the socket.
What is left when the project ends
A notebook you can open a year later and still understand: the sources, the discussions and the result, with the reason next to every decision. If the next project is similar, you start from here instead of from an empty page.
Where to go next
Work on one notebook togetherBuild a project knowledge base that stays useful
Start with one notebook.
The Personal plan is free: notes, files and search. AI and shared notebooks can be added later, when a project needs them.
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