eComment gives you the ability to enable or disable comments and requests to speak on an item-by-item basis. Complete the following steps from the Comments tab:

  1. Click the Hide/Show link to the right of the Manage Public Comments and Requests to Speak for Agenda Items section.

The 'Comments' sub-tab, with the 'Hide/Show' button highlighted

  1. All agenda items are selected by default. Deselect the checkbox next to any item to disable the public's ability to comment or request to speak on it. 
  2. To deselect or select all items, scroll to the bottom of the agenda and click Toggle All Agenda Items for comments or requests to speak. 

The public comments/requests to speak section of a meeting, with the 'Toggle all" checkboxes highlighted

Meeting Settings

You can also work with the settings to change when comments close, either for a specific agenda item or for the meeting as a whole.

  1. To set a time specific to an agenda item, select an item from the All Agenda Items drop-down menu on the left. You can also specify settings for a specific location by selecting one from the All User Locations drop-down menu. 

The agenda items in the 'All Agenda items' drop-down menu

  1. Click This Meeting Settings.

'This Meeting Settings' button highlighted

  1. Change when the comments should close by entering a number in the Close Comments field. This represents how many minutes prior to the meeting's start the system should close comments. If you would like to like to keep comments open during the meeting, check the box next to Keep Comments Open. This will leave comments for the agenda item open indefinitely. If, after the meeting or at any point you would like to close comments, return to this page and uncheck the box. If this box is checked, you will no longer be able to close comments at a certain time.
In the Notify field, you can also set the email to which notification of comments closing is sent. 

Keeping comments open for a single agenda item

If you instead click the All Meeting Settings button, you'll go the Public Meeting Settings page, where you can change the general time comments should close for a meeting (for those agenda items that don't have a custom time set), the comment length limit, disclaimer text, thank-you text, speaker confirmation text, and other settings.

Read about Public Meeting Settings in the next section.