Manage Meeting Types

In CivicClerk, now our Agenda and Meeting Management Select solution, a Meeting Type is defined as a large group of configurable options all related to a single type of meeting, which allows for the quick and easy creation of agendas that contain appropriate default content and styling.

Each Meeting Type can have distinct templates, default sections and items, item field customizations, item report and minutes designs, and approval routings, among many other aspects that are configurable at this level.

A typical example of using multiple Meeting Types would be the establishment of a City Council meeting and a Zoning Board meeting. The overall design (including header/footer, font style/size, and spacing), the agenda content and order of the meeting (for example, default sections/items and order of default content), and the additional linked functionality (such as board assignment, item reports, minutes, and agenda script) may be significantly different between these two types of meetings. A proper Meeting Type setup would allow for two distinct meetings to automatically populate with appropriate content while remaining flexible enough to make changes as needed.

Each Meeting Type can be assigned a single Board, while a single Board can be assigned to multiple Meeting Types. Within CivicClerk a Board is defined as a group of members that are part of the decision-making body, so we allow for the flexibility to use a single Board across multiple Meeting Types.

A typical example of proper Board assignment would be a City Council Board that is assigned to the City Council Regular Meeting and the City Council Special Meeting.

Important Note

• To manage these settings a user must have the Has Access to Meetings Site Settings permission in their User Profile.

Reorder Meeting Types

The Edit Order functionality allows you to change the order in which your Meeting Types appear on various pages or within certain dropdown menus.

Instructions

1. Sign in to the system if you have not already
2. Navigate to User Menu > Settings
   
3. Select Meetings
   
4. Select Meeting Types
   
5. Click the Edit Order button
   
6. Drag and drop the Meeting Types into the preferred order
   
7. Click Save Changes
   
8. The Meeting Types have been reordered

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Best Practice Recommendation

Most users will prefer to have Meeting Types ordered in some manner, as the default ordering method (the order in which the Meeting Types were created) inhibits working efficiently. Generally, having the list sorted by frequency of use (most used at the top, least used at the bottom) or alphabetically by name provides the greatest benefit to users.

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Inactivate a Meeting Type

Users with access to Site Settings are able to inactivate Meeting Types so they don't appear in meeting type dropdowns. Historical meetings created with inactivated meeting types remain available.

Instructions

1. Sign in to the system if you have not already
2. Navigate to User Menu > Settings
   
3. Select Meetings
   
4. Select Meeting Types
   
5. Toggle the Active switch off for the desired meeting type
   
6. The Meeting Type has been inactivated

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Delete a Meeting Type

The Delete functionality allows you to remove a Meeting Type that is not needed, as long as it is not currently in use.

There is a built-in check to ensure that a Meeting Type is not currently in use by an existing agenda. If either of the following automatic checks is true, the system will prohibit the user from deleting the Meeting Type:

• An Agenda using this template currently exists on the Meetings page (use the Filters at the top of the page to locate any meetings that use the desired Meeting Type)
• An Agenda using this template currently exists in the Recently Deleted table of the Trash Can (agendas that have moved into the Permanently Deleted section will not cause the check to fail)

Instructions

1. Sign in to the system if you have not already
2. Navigate to User Menu > Settings
   
3. Select Meetings
   
4. Select Meeting Types
   
5. Click the Delete button for the desired Meeting Type
   
6. Confirm the deletion by clicking the Delete Meeting Type button
   
7. A success message will appear
   
8. The Meeting Type has been deleted

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Copy a Meeting Type

The Copy functionality allows you to quickly duplicate an existing Meeting Type. During the Copy process, you can customize which options are copied from the source Meeting Type. All Meeting Type-related settings can be individually modified after creation.

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When to Use the Copy Meeting Type Feature

The Copy Meeting Type feature is ideal for when the new desired Meeting Type will be very similar to an existing Meeting Type. While all settings can be individually modified after creation, account set-ups may vary depending on several factors so the work involved in making configuration adjustments will also vary. If your desired Meeting Type will be very similar to a source Meeting Type in the following areas copying may be a good option:

• Meeting Document(s) Format - You want the format of your document(s) to remain the same as the source. This typically includes formatting of the headers/footers, the styling of your sections and items, and the page margins of your Agenda, Items Reports, or Minutes.
• Default Sections and Items - You want the content of your agenda body to remain the same as the source, specifically referring to the sections and items that automatically populate when a new meeting is created.
• Item Fields and Item Report Content - You want the fields that are available to users when editing items to remain the same as the source. This also includes the formatting and body content of any Item Reports that may be generated for these items.

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Example Use of Copy Meeting Type

The City Council currently has a Legislative Committee and a Budget Committee. At last night’s meeting, they passed legislation to create a Neighborhood Committee. It will use the same agenda design and have the same basic outline as the existing Legislative Committee and Budget Committee.

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When Not to Use the Copy Meeting Type Feature

If you anticipate the need to customize more than a handful of options for your new Meeting Type then Copy may not be a good fit. This is especially true if the new Meeting Type is expected to use a different document format, have an entirely different set of default sections and items, or use a new item field design/item report design.

We recommend reaching out to determine if CivicPlus professional services assistance would be a good fit for your needs, as a cost may be incurred due to the time required to assist in completing the necessary configurations if a Copied Meeting Type is not operating as expected due to configuration changes. For more information, please contact your Customer Success Manager.

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Instructions

1. Sign in to the system if you have not already
2. Navigate to User Menu > Settings
   
3. Select Meetings
   
4. Select Meeting Types
   
5. Click the Copy Meeting Type button
   
6. Fill in the information fields
   
   
   • Meeting Type: Enter the name of the new Meeting Type you are creating
   • Copy Settings From: Select one of the existing Meeting Types that will be used as the source for creating your copy
   • Settings to Copy: Check the boxes next to the groups of settings that you would like copied from the source Meeting Type
     
     • Default Settings: Base template settings, including the Word Designs for your documents and the numbering style to be used for sections/items
     • Options: The tailored list of Item Categories, Recommended Actions, and Motions available to users when creating items on this Meeting Type
     • Sections: The tailored list of Sections that automatically populate when a new meeting is created
     • Item Reports: The rules that govern the auto-creation of item reports on items placed in specified sections
     • Agenda Script: The designs associated with the Agenda Script document format
     • Minutes: The designs associated with the Minutes document format
     • Notifications: The options for notifications that are Meeting Type-specific
     • Custom Data: The Agenda-level field customization options
     • Fiscal Data: The options for the Item-level fiscal fields
     • Labels: The options for additional labels not managed elsewhere
     • Default Text: The automatically populated text for the Agenda-level custom data fields
     • Default Items: The tailored list of Items that automatically populate when a new meeting is created
7. Click Save Changes
   
   
   Note: Click Save and Copy Another to save this new meeting type and begin copying another existing meeting type.
8. The copied Meeting Type has been created

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Edit a Meeting Type

Once a Meeting Type is created, all individual settings can be modified as required. Meeting Type settings are broken down into several categories depending on the content that you want to modify.

For information on how to modify commonly used categories, see the following articles:

• Manage Agenda Custom Data
• Manage Agenda Fiscal Data
• Manage Default Text
• Manage Default Items

For more information on available configuration changes, see the Meetings Settings page of the Help Center.

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Resources

• Meetings Settings
• Manage Agenda Custom Data
• Manage Agenda Fiscal Data
• Manage Default Text
• Manage Default Items

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