Why Subscribe to Round the Triangle?
The goal of this newsletter is to provide concise and clear summaries of government meetings in the Historic Triangle area of Virginia, helping you stay informed about local governance and community issues. For now, I am only sending out summaries of Williamsburg James City County school board meetings, but plan to offer more meeting summaries in the near future.
Additionally, I occasionally report on public records related to Williamsburg, James City County, and York County. Subscribing to Round the Triangle is completely free! You can unsubscribe at any time.
How I Use ChatGPT to Help with Government Meeting Summaries:
ChatGPT is a tool known as a large language model that can help analyze and synthesize large amounts of textual data. Here’s how I use it to produce government meeting summaries:
I split the transcript of the meeting into segments, which ChatGPT turns into reports as if it was a professional note-taker.
Based on those reports, I explore topics that may be of interest to readers, asking ChatGPT to elaborate on key points.
I select the main and minor topics for the summary, and then ChatGPT produces a draft summary going off of a template I provide. I fact-check and make revisions to finalize the summary.
How You Can Support
For the advanced features I need to produce these summaries, ChatGPT charges $20/month. This technology allows me to produce summaries much faster than I normally would be able to, which means I can also send summaries to readers much faster. The time I save using this technology will also make it possible to produce summaries of other meetings in the near future.
Paid subscriptions help me cover this expense, so please consider upgrading for $5/month or $50/year. As a paid member, you will receive school board summaries the day after the meeting as well as summaries of school board work sessions. You’ll also get early access to new features.
Thank you so much for your support! If you enjoy Round the Triangle, please share it with your friends by clicking the button below.
