I have two supervisors, both of whom talk at about a million miles per hour and change direction about every mile, meaning I come out of supervisions feeling quite excited, but also rather bewildered!

Do you think taking a dictophone in is going too far, will I look like a nut-case?!

I have often wondered the same thing myself - but not deared to ask. However I have a great post-doc on my committe who takes really good notes -so i always ask to borrow them after a meeting

I've done it, it's really helpful. Obviously, you will need to ask your supervisor for permission, no covert tape-recording allowed!

never thought about that but sounds useful!

I do it. My MP3 player has a an inbuilt microphone which is rreally handy. I use it to write the minutes and then circulate them.

Might be a good idea. I don't use one because my supervisor talks slow enough for me to take notes, but when I was working in the real world I had a boss who used a bunch of technical terms and I recored all the meetings to complement my notes.