How does Agendease work?
Organizations sign up for Agendease and begin creating complete agenda packets for their meetings on-line! All work on Agendease is done in web-based forms that an organization can access anywhere Internet service is available. The forms are easy to use, and all information entered in a form can be changed later. The sections below describe the process of setting up an account, and how agenda packets are created for each meeting.
Indicate the Organization's Boards and Commissions
After an account is set up, the administrator for the organization - usually the person who created the account - begins adding boards and commissions to the account. For example, a municipality may need to add a city council, a planning and zoning commission, an airport commission, a library board, and similar boards and commissions. Once the boards and commissions are added, meetings can be created for them.
Add Users
The organization then begins adding other users to the account. Each user is given an access level. A user's access level determines what information they can and can't add to the account. Additional users can be added at any time, and information, including access level, can be changed for any existing user.
Set Up Different Meeting Agenda Styles
Now, the organization can begin creating the different styles of agendas that are needed for each meeting format. The different boards that were set up may have different meeting formats. It is not unusual for the same board or commission to have more than one meeting format either. For example, a board may use one meeting (agenda) format for regular meetings and another for special meetings. Agendease allows an organization to set up as many meeting formats as it needs. The ability to create many meeting styles is one of the greatest benefits of Agendease.
Set Up Different Item Types
Meeting agendas need to contain agenda items. Before items can be added to an agenda, the item types must be created. Item types can be used for all agendas within the organization, not just certain agenda styles or meeting formats. Typical item types are resolutions, ordinances, discussion items, commendations, and similar items. Like all other Agendease features, item types can be added, deleted or changed at any time. Deleted item types continue to be available for previous agendas that may still be viewable online.
That is all that is necessary to set up an account to begin creating meeting packets. The steps to create meeting packets are:
Start Creating Meetings
Now that all the information required to begin creating agenda packets is entered, the organization can begin creating meetings, and adding items to the agenda. The steps indicated above only need to be done to set up the account, boards and commissions, meeting styles, and item types. They only need to be entered once. The steps below describe the actions that need to be done each time a meeting is created and items are added to its agenda.
Add Agenda Items to the Meeting
Users who have the needed level of access can set up a meeting. A user specifies the board, date, time, location, for the meeting, or simply accepts the defaults that were specified for the board when it was entered during the board's set-up. The user also specifies the meeting (agenda) style to use for this meeting. That's it. Users can now begin adding agenda items to the meeting.
Not all users can create agenda items for a board or commission. When a user is set up the access levels are specified for each board and commission. For example, a user may be able to create agenda items for one board, but not for another board. This flexibility is another one of the features that sets Agendease apart from other agenda creation services. The user creating the item enters all the required information, and uploads any files that need to accompany the item. An item can be changed up until the time that the agenda is published and available for viewing by the public.
Done!
After all items are complete, the user who is responsible for posting the agenda packet clicks a button and the agenda packet is online!
