Posting minutes on the MyTownGovernment site?

[David Rosenberg]

Does the MyTownGovernment web site currently have a facility for hosting and allowing the public to access minutes of town Board and Committee meetings? If not, are you thinking of providing such a facility in the future?

If there is currently or might in the future be a facility for hosting minutes, in what form could they be posted? A plain text document? HTML? A PDF file? A Microsoft Word file? The standardized OpenDocument Format (ODF)? The standardized Office Open XML format (OOXML)? A set of slides?

Thanks.

/David

[Joshua Smith]

On Dec 28, 2011, at 5:53 PM, David Rosenberg wrote:

> Does the MyTownGovernment web site currently have a facility for hosting and allowing the public to access minutes of town Board and Committee meetings? If not, are you thinking of providing such a facility in the future?

We have such a facility now. Any committee can upload minutes and other documents associated with meetings, and they can also upload documents associated with their board (such as rules of order, or forms for the public to use).

When committees do not upload minutes or check the box saying they are available, then the system gently harasses them about that.

>
> If there is currently or might in the future be a facility for hosting minutes, in what form could they be posted? A plain text document? HTML? A PDF file? A Microsoft Word file? The standardized OpenDocument Format (ODF)? The standardized Office Open XML format (OOXML)? A set of slides?

The system allows anything. Users can download the file that was uploaded, or they can view it on line. For online viewing, I use google docs viewer which handles just about every format people use.

My thinking was that it is hard enough to get people to post minutes and documents, and we shouldn't force them to deal with format conversions. If people need format conversion, that should be my problem, not theirs.

>
> Thanks.
>
> /David

[David Rosenberg]

On Dec 28, 2011, at 6:28 PM, Joshua Smith wrote:
> The system allows anything. Users can download the file that was uploaded, or they can view it on line. For online viewing, I use google docs viewer which handles just about every format people use.
>
> My thinking was that it is hard enough to get people to post minutes and documents, and we shouldn't force them to deal with format conversions. If people need format conversion, that should be my problem, not theirs.

That sounds very good! Thank you.

Will I only be able to post minutes from meetings that were posted on MyTownGovernment, or can I also post minutes from previous meetings that were held before we started using MyTownGovernment?

The Open Meeting Law requires that meetings be posted "at least 48 hours prior to such meeting, excluding Saturdays, Sundays and legal holidays". What is MyTownGovernment using as the set of "legal holidays"?

Assuming that my Town Clerk allows posting meetings of groups that are not subject to the Open Meeting Law (such as a Boy Scout troop or a Town political committee), what will happen when such a group tries to post a meeting with shorter notice than is required by the Open Meeting Law?

Thanks.

/David

[Joshua Smith]

On Dec 28, 2011, at 7:03 PM, David Rosenberg wrote:

> On Dec 28, 2011, at 6:28 PM, Joshua Smith wrote:
>> The system allows anything. Users can download the file that was uploaded, or they can view it on line. For online viewing, I use google docs viewer which handles just about every format people use.
>>
>> My thinking was that it is hard enough to get people to post minutes and documents, and we shouldn't force them to deal with format conversions. If people need format conversion, that should be my problem, not theirs.
>
> That sounds very good! Thank you.
>
> Will I only be able to post minutes from meetings that were posted on MyTownGovernment, or can I also post minutes from previous meetings that were held before we started using MyTownGovernment?

You can post historical meetings in the system, and then attach minutes to them.

>
> The Open Meeting Law requires that meetings be posted "at least 48 hours prior to such meeting, excluding Saturdays, Sundays and legal holidays". What is MyTownGovernment using as the set of "legal holidays"?

http://www.sec.state.ma.us/cis/cishol/holidx.htm

>
> Assuming that my Town Clerk allows posting meetings of groups that are not subject to the Open Meeting Law (such as a Boy Scout troop or a Town political committee), what will happen when such a group tries to post a meeting with shorter notice than is required by the Open Meeting Law?

I never intended for the system to be used that way. If it were, I'd probably add the ability to mark a group as being exempt, so it would let them post without any complaint.

>
> Thanks.
>
> /David

[Shirley MA Town Clerk]

I've been using the site to post dates when the town offices are closed (every Friday), when there are elections, and when there are public forums (that are not official meetings subject to OML), so having a group being able to be exempt from the posting requirements and minutes requirements would be useful, though not crucial since I normally post this information far in advance. I just have a lot of minutes requests glaring at me for the Town Office being closed on Fridays notice.  :-)

Thanks,

Amy

[Joshua Smith]

Hmmmm.

It seems that what you are posting is not a meeting. So perhaps a "meeting" could have a flag indicating that it is not really a meeting, but rather an event. I would think this flag belongs in the "Meeting" object, not the "Board" object, since you might put the "town offices closed" as a regular "meeting" of the Board of Selectmen, or something.

I'll put that on the to-do list.

-Joshua