This quick reference guide provides step-by-step instructions on how to export meeting data from Legistar to LiveManager, timestamp agenda items and record motions, votes, and notes for the meeting in LiveManager, and import the meeting data back into Legistar.

Pre-Meeting – Working in Legistar

Step 1: Schedule a Meeting and Generate an Agenda

Clerks must do these steps well ahead of time so drafters can draft legislative files, and approvers can approve the files during the approval process if necessary. Once approved, files will be in “Agenda Ready” status, which allows them to automatically pull onto an agenda for a specific date.

  1. Click Agendas in the left menu to open the Agendas module. The Calendar tab is displayed.
  2. Click New to create the meeting for which you want to generate an agenda.
  3. Click the Agenda tab.
  4. Click Generate. The agenda generates in the Agenda window.

For more information, see the Generating an Agenda Quick Reference Guide.

Step 2: (Optional) Marking Agenda Items as Consent Items

Consent votes allow a group of items to be acted on by one block vote.

You mark items for consent on the Minutes tab in the Minutes module:

  1. Select the items you want to mark consent (by using the Shift or Ctrl keys, or dragging the cursor).

  2. Click Mark Consent on the bottom left of the screen.

     

  3. Verify the line numbers associated with the items become underlined, and turn red.

Step 3: Export Meeting Data (once the agenda is finalized)

  1. On the Agenda tab, select the meeting you wish to export.

  2. Click the Tools menu, and select the Export Data option.

     

  3. A Legistar Waiting… status message is displayed while Legistar exports the data.

     

  4. The following message appears when the meeting export is completed:

     

  5. Once exported, your meeting becomes an event in MediaManager. MediaManager is used to route the agenda to LiveManager. Take note of the event name as it will appear in MediaManager, then click OK.

  6. Run an Agenda Report to “Publish to InSite” to publish the agenda on the public InSite website (it can take a few minutes for the link to become active).   If the Update Agenda URL popup appears, click Yes if you would like to send the Agenda URL to Granicus MediaManager for storage in the template. This enables the agenda URL on the Granicus view page so the agenda is viewable when the meeting video is in playback, and also enables it to be available in iLegislate.

  7. Check MediaManager to ensure the meeting event and agenda data is properly set up for video recording.

Note: You can export data as many times as you want, and you will need to do so if you make changes to your agenda in Legistar.

During the Meeting - Working in LiveManager

Step 1: Preparing for the Meeting

  1. To open LiveManager, double-click the LiveManager icon on your desktop.

  2. Click Load Meeting, and select your meeting from the list of available meetings.

  3. Click Load.

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  4. Prepare for the meeting: Add attendees, speakers, and agenda items if necessary. VoteCast users should also select the speaker chair. For more information, see the Working with LiveManager Quick Reference Guide.

    Note for iLegislate Voting users: 
    If a Mayor or other staff member (e.g., City Attorney) is not a member of the Legistar Office Members for a meeting body, they will not be included in the list of LiveManager attendees. However, if that person is on any Office Membership in Legistar, they are available to add manually as an attendee in LiveManager. You can do this when you want to add the Mayor or a staff member so they can use our iLegislate Voting solution as a “request to speak” tool from their iPads during the meeting. 
    a. Click the Attendees tab in the center pane, select a name from the Enter attendee name to add drop-down menu, then clickAdd Attendee.
    b. Before you import the data collected in the live meeting back into Legistar, you must delete any of these members you added during the meeting so they don't appear in Legistar Minutes--see the note in the Step 4 section below.

  5. Click the Start button to start the meeting.

Step 2: During the Meeting

During the meeting, take a roll call, timestamp agenda items, and record motions, votes and notes as necessary. The steps in this section briefly demonstrate how to do this. For more information, see the Working with LiveManager Quick Reference Guide.

To take a roll call: Click Roll Call. Under the New Roll Call tab, select the Present, Absent, or Excused option for each attendee, and click Record. The Roll Call is timestamped in the Minutes panel on the right side of the screen.

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Note: You must take Roll Call before using the Record Unanimous Yea Vote button.

To timestamp an agenda item: Select the item from the left Agenda panel, and either double-click the item or click Record in the middle of the screen. The item is timestamped in the Minutes panel.

To record a note: Enter notes in the Quick Note field, and click Record.

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To create a motion and record a vote for an agenda item:

  1. Verify the agenda item is timestamped, and click Motion (or press Ctrl + M). The New Motion Item fields are displayed. Select the Mover, Seconder, and Action, and enter text in the Motion Text field.

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  1. Click Record to save the motion to the minutes and automatically open the voting screen.

Note: Click Record Unanimous Yea Vote to instantly record both the motion and Yea vote on the Motion panel. You must record a roll call for this button to be active. Any members marked as "Excused" during roll call will be automatically marked as "absent" for the vote, and their vote will not be counted. This is the same behavior as taking a manual (one by one) vote when there are excused members. 

  1. On the voting screen, select the appropriate voting result checkbox for each member (e.g., Yea, Nay, Recuse, Abstain, etc.).

 

  1. Click Record to save the results of the vote. If the vote passed, the Vote Result will appear green. If it failed, it will appear red.

Step 3: (Optional) Working with Consent Items

Consent items on the agenda are indicated by a grey “C” icon in the Agenda panel.

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Right-click an agenda item and select Mark Consent Item to mark it as part of the Consent Agenda:

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You can also unmark an item to “pull” it from the Consent Agenda.

 

The Consent button becomes enabled when Consent Agenda items are present and at least one of these agenda items has been timestamped.

 

Clicking the Consent button opens the Consent Vote window in LiveManager:

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Note for VoteCast users: Clicking Consent also brings up the Consent Vote interface:

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When you deselect a checkbox associated with an item to “pull” it from the Consent Agenda, the item receives a strikethrough treatment in VoteCast.

 

After you record the Consent Vote, a combined motion/vote item is recorded into the minutes. A green “C” icon indicates agenda items that were passed with this motion and vote.

 

Step 4: Finalize the Meeting

Note for iLegislate Voting users:

Before you import the data collected in the live meeting back into Legistar, you must delete any members you added during the meeting (so they could use the "request to speak" tool) so they don't appear in Legistar Minutes.

To do this, click the Attendees tab in the center pane, and click the stop icon (redCircle.jpg) to remove an attendee from the meeting.

Finalize the Meeting

Click Stop, and then click Finalize. The meeting data will be available in MediaManager after it finishes uploading.

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Note: 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 below. 

Post-Meeting

Step 1: Import Data into Legistar

  1. Select the meeting on the Calendar tab in the Minutes module, then select the Minutes tab.

  2. Click the Tools menu, and select the Import Data option to add the recorded motions, votes, and notes back into Legistar.

 

  1. The following message appears when the data import is completed:

 

  1. Verify motions action text is correct and add/edit any notes, if applicable. For more information, see the Processing Minutes Quick Reference Guide. When all your Minutes data is correct, make sure to select Tools – Finalize Meeting.

  2. When you’re ready to publish the minutes record, go to the Calendar tab for the specific date and change the status from “Draft” to “Final.”

  3. Run a Minutes Report to “Publish to InSite” in order to publish the meeting minutes on the public InSite website.

Examples of Legistar Screens after Meeting Data has been Imported

Minutes tab:

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Actions tab:

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Consent Votes tab:

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Action Text and Rec Votes tab:

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Note: After the meeting has finished uploading, the video is available for editing in MediaManager. Video editors can trim the video, and add/adjust timestamps.