diff --git a/ChangeLog b/ChangeLog
index 9e31f9b4a7..ca6cbd2385 100644
--- a/ChangeLog
+++ b/ChangeLog
@@ -19,6 +19,8 @@
 
 	* README.docs, README-docs: rename
 
+	* docs/notes/release: add release checklist
+
 2003-06-26  David I. Lehn <dlehn@users.sourceforge.net>
 
 	* configure.ac, AUTHORS, NEWS, README, TODO, docs/Makefile.am,
diff --git a/docs/notes/release b/docs/notes/release
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..c269fedb7c
--- /dev/null
+++ b/docs/notes/release
@@ -0,0 +1,18 @@
+Release Checklist
+-----------------
+
+(procedure while just working on trunk)
+
+- update version in configure.ac
+- update date in docs/gst-python.ent.in
+- add entry for current version to docs/NEWS.xml
+- 'make distcheck'
+  - fix problems and repeat as needed
+- tag cvs ('cvs tag RELEASE-x_y_z')
+- GPG sign tarball
+- upload tarball to sourceforge
+- build release notes:
+  - '(cd docs/; make RELNOTES.txt)'
+- announce:
+  - gstreamer-{devel, announce}
+  - freshmeat