Emily Takes Notes to make Houston City Council more accessible, serve her community

Everyone should do whatever they can, no matter how tiny, to improve their community, according to Emily J. Hynds.

For this reason, Hynds, 40, started observing and taking notes on Houston City Council meetings in 2020, when the nation was engulfed in racial justice protests and the early months of the COVID-19 outbreak. Activists were examining hikes to the Houston Police Department’s budget during budget season.

However, the council meetings take place in the middle of the workday, with the agenda-driven business segment starting at 9 a.m. on Wednesdays and public comment sessions on Tuesday afternoons.

According to Hynds, a freelance writer and artist from south Houston, there appeared to be a lot of interest in this, but they have jobs right now. I thought this was something I could do on a regular basis because it went over pretty well and I enjoyed it.

On her Instagram feed, Hynds shared her initial version of Emily Takes Notes. What began as a side project while cooped up at home has since amassed a following of thousands of people and is used by insiders at City Hall to track the specifics of council meetings. Hynds has used the notes as a launching pad for various projects, such as a voter guide for local elections, a podcast in which the notes are dictated, and the availability of hernotes in Spanish.

Now, Hynds wants to expand her library of previous meetings so that anybody can use the notes for their own research.

The core of Hynds’ effort is making City Council accessible since she believes that working people cannot easily attend the daytime meetings.

“I feel really committed to keep doing it because it’s awful,” Hynds explains.

Hynds never left Houston, having grown up in the Alief neighborhood. She earned her degree in drama from the University of Houston in 2007. Since then, she has worked in a variety of jobs, such as freelance writing, communications consulting, and continuing the side business she began in college: pet sitting. She has also been running Grown-up Storytime, a monthly storytelling series, with a group of friends since 2007.

Hynds laughs and says, “I like to tell people that I’m allergic to having one job.”

Hynds is most suited to observe and interpret City Council proceedings for the general public because of her theater training. Hynds served as the associate director for the Houston Shakespeare Festival during the summers of 2007 and 2008. The director would dictate notes during show runs, which Hynds would subsequently write down and give to the play’s cast.

“It’s exactly the same vibe because the language is foreign and Shakespeare is so dense and weird,” Hynds explains. That has the same vibe as the language of the City Council.

She takes careful note of everything. From her bed or the couch in the living room, Hynds typically uses a laptop to watch the Wednesday morning council meetings. She takes handwritten notes in a black and white composition notebook.

The published notes contain a small amount of commentary but are generally simple. Hynds wrote Hey Siri, take note to follow up in 2027 on reimbursement after the council approved $200 million on Nov. 20 for Southwest Airlines to construct a new concourse at Hobby International Airport. The city claims that the funds will be recoverable upon completion in 2027.

Though they are presented in plain black print on a white background without any images or ornate typefaces to detract from the information on the homepage, the notes are the main attraction.

Hynds takes a little break at the conclusion of the sessions before turning her notes into digital slides that she can share on her website and Instagram. After then, she asks a small group of volunteers to proofread the notes for errors. She records the Emily Takes Notes podcast in the evening and forwards it to another volunteer for editing and publication.

Hynds receives the notes back from the proofreading crew by Thursday morning, at which point she publishes them online. Hynds spends roughly ten hours a week creating the notes.

Politicians, interest organizations, and regular Houstonians like Hynds are all represented in the comments section of each post. They continually congratulate Hynds for her efforts, debate the most recent council decision detailed in the notes, and urge political leaders to address their concerns.

Hynds strives to maintain a feeling of community at the heart of all of her endeavors. Although she has received little to no compensation for her online notes, she does take tips.

In order to assist her, she has assembled a network of volunteers with a range of abilities and knowledge. One friend, for example, created a website that automatically transcribes council meetings and makes them available online, enabling Hynds to promptly verify the accuracy of her notes.

According to Hynds, “I think it’s inherently a theater thing as well.” No matter what kind of theater you do, it’s a really social experience if you enjoy it.

Hynds characterized her notes as a work of love for the city because of this. Although Houston is a somewhat shabby place to live due to its numerous natural disasters, inadequate urban planning, and unbearably hot summers, it is also where I call home.

According to Hynds, “I either can’t wait to leave or I can’t imagine leaving.” Living here is such a complex connection.

For the time being, Hynds has no intentions to relocate or cease taking notes. Additionally, she has no ambitions to grow, preferring to continue concentrating on her Houston community.

It feels very grounding and effective and concrete to get involved in local politics because they re talking about the things that literally affect me every day.