This quick reference guide for Legistar users provides step-by-step instructions on how to process minutes. When an agenda is generated pre-meeting, the data duplicates to become your minutes form. This minutes form is a draft and not your final minutes document until after the meeting.
Note: If using LiveManager, you need to import Minutes data at the start of this process. Although you may not edit your minutes for a few days or longer, make sure to import data back into Legistar as soon as possible after the meeting in order for the video to become available on InSite. See Step 1 in the Post-Meeting section of Working with Legistar and LiveManager for more information.
Step 1: Accessing the Minutes Module and Importing Minutes
Click Minutes on the left-hand side of the Legistar interface. The Minutes module opens on the Calendar tab, which displays the most recent minutes forms from meetings that occurred within the last 90 days. You can search for a specific minutes form by selecting and entering criteria from the available fields at the top of the screen.
To import, select Tools > Import Data. This may take a few minutes. After the import, you may begin editing and processing your set of minutes using the steps below.
Step 2: Entering a Roll Call
Click the Actions tab for the selected meeting.
Click the appropriate item upon which you want the roll call to appear. The item may be called “Roll Call” or “Call to Order.”
Click the Attendance tab on the right side of the screen, and then click the Attendance button. Each member of the meeting body is displayed and marked as Present by default.
Select members who were absent or excused from the meeting one by one, and select an appropriate status from the drop-down list in the Attendance column.
Click Save in the top left hand corner of the screen.
Note: If a member is not in the list, you can select their name from the drop-down list available above the Name column and click Add Member to add them if necessary. Their name appears in italics to indicate that they are an ad hoc member.
Step 3: Entering Meeting Actions
On the Action tab, select the item to which you want to add an appropriate action (i.e. motion, vote, notes).
Select the appropriate Mover, Seconder, and Action for the item.
(Conditional) If the item is being referred to another meeting body, select the referred -->(Sent To) action in the Action field to activate the Sent To field, then select the appropriate meeting body in the Sent To field.
Enter any notes you wish to appear in your minutes in the Action Note field.
Step 4: Recording Votes
After adding an action as instructed above, select the item for which you want to record a vote.
On the right side of the screen, select Voice Vote if this is a unanimous Yes vote, or select Roll Call to manually record Yes and No votes. If you select Roll Call, click the Rec Vote tab, and click All Yes to populate the votes for each voting member. If someone has voted No, click the appropriate drop-down arrow in the Vote column and select the No vote.
Click Save for the text to populate in the Action Text field; you can also click the actual Action Text name for the text to populate in this field.
Review the action text, make changes to the language of your motion or vote text if necessary, and click Save. You may also click directly on Action Text to regenerate text after data has been changed.
Note: If necessary, click the magnifying glass icon to expand the Action Text field. See Step 5 below to learn how to include standard paragraphs.
Note:The system typically assigns an Enactment Number when a specific action is taken that is designated as the final action, such as when the Primary Legislative Body passes a file during the process of recording the minutes or upon approval by the Mayor.
Step 5: Recording an action note on an item that has no action or vote
Select the item and record your note in the Action Note field. If necessary, click the magnifying glass icon to expand the Action Note field. To include standard paragraphs:
Click Add. The Standard Paragraphs popup box is displayed:
Select the paragraph you want to include, and click Copy to Legistar Clipboard.
Click Paste.
Click Save.
Click OK to close the expanded Action Note field.
Step 6: Using the File Update Tab
Click the File Update tab to view file updates after voting. Typically you should not have to change the file update as it will behave according to your setup procedures. However, there are rules that cannot be anticipated. For example, Legistar assumes the file has passed if it meets quorum but required a certain number of votes and didn't receive them, so it has actually failed. In this case, select Set As Failed for the Vote Override option, and click Save. The file is updated accordingly and the action text is also changed.
Step 7: Processing Consent Votes
Consent votes allow a group of items to be acted on by one block vote. The action taken on the consent items is the action defined as the standard action in Administration.
You mark items for consent on the Minutes tab:
Select the items you want to mark consent (by using the Shift or Ctrl keys, or dragging the cursor).
Click Mark Consent on the bottom left of the screen.
Verify the line numbers associated with the items become underlined.
The Consent Votes tab displays only the items that have been marked consent, and you use this tab to process the standard action on all these files. For each file:
Select all of the lines that you want to include in the consent vote (by using the Shift or Ctrl keys, or dragging the cursor).
Select a Mover and a Seconder.
Change the action in the Action field if necessary.
Use the Rec Votes tab to take a vote.
Click the Standard Action button on the bottom left of the screen. The Action column is filled in for each item.
Click Save.
Step 8: Adding, Copying, and Deleting Minutes Lines
Double-click a selected meeting on the Calendar tab, or click the Minutes tab for the selected meeting. The Minutes tab is displayed. This tab enables you to manually create the minutes if they have not already been generated. You can add, copy, move, and delete minute lines.
Adding Minutes Lines
Click the Adddrop-down arrow at the bottom of the screen.
There are multiple ways to add new lines to the minutes form:
Select Add after Selected Line to add a new line after the existing line.
Select Add before Selected Line to add a new line before the existing line.
Best Practice: Select Add Many Lines to enter more than one line after the existing line. Hold down your Ctrl key and select legislative files from the menu on the left, and click the arrow to move the files onto the agenda. Note: Use the Copy Selected Line option to copy selected lines (see below). You can also right-click on any line to display the minute line options:
If the line is a header, enter a description in the Description field, enter a comment in the Comment field if necessary, and select a header style from the Style drop-down menu. Each header style has different font attributes. Make sure to click Save for your entries to appear in the minutes below.
If the line is a minute item, click the drop-down arrow in the File ID field, select a file from the list of files, then double-click the file. The file appears in the File ID field, and the file type appears in the File Type field. If necessary, fill in the Description and Comment fields. Make sure to click Save for your entries to appear in the minutes below.
Copying Minutes Lines
Select the minutes line you want to copy.
Click the Add drop-down arrow or right-click on the selected line, and select the Copy Selected Line option.
Confirm the line is added to the minutes, and click Save.
Deleting Minutes Lines
Select the minutes line you want to delete.
Click Delete at the bottom of the screen, or right-click on the selected line and click Delete.
Click Yes at the confirmation prompt. The line is deleted.
Step 9: Finalizing the Minutes
When all your Minutes data is correct, make sure to select Tools – Finalize Meeting. This is an important step as it will apply the action(s) to your files, change the file status accordingly, and preserve the information as history on the file.
Note: This step only applies if you run LiveManager and import the data back into Legistar.
Step 10: Creating PDFs for Minutes Reports
Select the minutes from the list of minutes under the Calendar tab.
Change the minutes status to Final in the Status field.
Click Reports, and select the appropriate minutes report.
Under the Report Settings, set the Destination field to Acrobat Format (PDF), verify the other settings are correct, and click Save Settings.
Click Run. Legistar creates a PDF of the minutes.
Step 11: Publishing the Minutes to InSite
When the minutes form is generated, its status is set to Draft to prevent other users from viewing the minutes until you manually change the status to Final.
On the Calendar tab, select the minutes you wish to publish.
Select Final from the drop-down list available in the Status field.
Click Reports in the top right hand corner of the screen, and select the minutes report you want to run.
In the Destination field, select Publish to InSite – Calendar (PDF), verify the other settings are correct, and click Save Settings.
Click Run. Legistar runs the report and makes a copy available to the public on InSite.
Verify your internet browser opens your minutes report or verify your minutes have published on InSite.
Note: Minutes takes approximately 15 minutes to appear on InSite.
