All Parish Councils (PC) must have meetings. Minimum 6 meetings a year some, upwards of 16 a year. Council and committee meetings require an agenda, papers and minutes. All these need to be drafted, edited, approved, discussed, posted on ‘noticeboards’ and online.
We nearly all use software these days and we have all discovered ways to make it easier to do. A small example is to keep the same headings each time on the agenda and morph that into the minutes at the post meeting stage. Using your smart phone to record the meeting also assists.
The process is a circular and repetitive. The documents revolve around the meeting but we will put the meeting as an item in the loop because the meeting requires actions too.
Using your preferred writing software you create an agenda template and a minutes template. DC provides a template for you to start with.
All the documents are written to the file storage area and shared from there.
What needs to be done for a meeting?
- Set a date
- Book a venue
- Pay for venue
- Publish the date
- Send invite
- Send reminder
- Change date
- Change location
- Inform attendees of changes
Agenda, Papers and Minutes
| Action | Days | Agenda | Papers | Minutes |
| Prepare. Draft | D-9 | Draft | ||
| Circulate for approval | D-8 | Draft | ||
| Edit | D-7 | Draft | ||
| Approved | D-6 | A | ||
| Prepare papers | Draft | |||
| Link papers to agenda | A | A | ||
| Post to website | D-5 | A | A | Draft |
| Post to information boards (physical) | D-5 | A | Draft | |
| Hold meeting | D | |||
| Display/ project agenda and papers | D | A | A | |
| Take minutes | D | Draft | ||
| Read, approve and sign minutes of previous meeting | D | A | ||
| Take minutes | D | Draft | ||
| Draft minutes | D+2 | Draft | ||
| Circulate for approval | D+4 | Draft | ||
| Edit | D+5 | Draft | ||
| Final draft ready | D+6 | Draft | ||
| Process starts again | ||||
| Prepare. Draft | D-9 | D |
From the minutes Action Plans can be developed.