This guide describes the concepts of the membertility Meetings Module, and gives guidance on how to achieve the meeting
work flow.
The general work flow for meetings <meeting>
is
meeting admin
createsmeeting
, indicating who would be invited, date, time, location, and purpose of the meetingmeeting admin
generatesinvitations <invite>
for themeeting
in the
invitation <invite>
, themember
is given a link to clickmember
is shown any outstandingaction items <action item>
they're responsible formember
clicks link and can indicate ifattending <rsvp>
themeeting
member
should also give theirstatus report
for eachposition
they're responsible formember
can updateaction item
status and record comments about theaction item
member
can add anydiscussion items <discussion item>
formeeting
- as
members <member>
adddiscussion items <discussion item>
, themeeting
agenda
is being built, with eachdiscussion item
turned into ameeting
agenda item
when ready, the
meeting admin
can generatestatus report
andagenda
documents- this will go to a Google Workspace drive location. In a future releases support will be added to create a Word doc
- once a Google Workspace file is created, it is updated nightly as
members <member>
continue to add or updatestatus reports <status report>
. Alternately, themeeting admin
can cause it to be updated on demand - the Google Workspace documents are initially generated to a configured folder, but can safely be moved to any desired folder
- additional emails can be sent to the
meeting
invite
list if needed, e.g., with links to documents which should be read to prepare for the meeting during the meeting, the admin can do the following, which forms the minutes for the meeting
- update attendee list (who actually came)
- add discussion about any
agenda item
- add an
action item
under anagenda item
- add a
motion
under anagenda item
, and tally itsvotes <vote>
- create a new
agenda item
(e.g., for unplanned discussion)
after the meeting, the admin can make any adjustments to the notes which were taken, and when satisfied, generate the
minutes
document (again to a Google Workspace drive location)- when
minutes
from the last meeting are voted on, changes are rarely required. But if changes are required, the admin can go into the lastmeeting's <meeting>
view, make the changes, and generate theminutes
again - Google Workspace
minutes
are generated to configured location but can safely be moved to the desired folder
- when
action items <action item>
,motions <motion>
/votes <vote>
,minutes
are available to themembers <member>
through the system immediately after the meetingmembers <member>
receive reminder emails about outstandingaction items <action item>
- digraph records {
graph [fontname = "helvetica"]; node [fontname = "helvetica"]; edge [fontname = "helvetica"]; "member 1" -> "position report 1"; "member 2" -> "position report 1"; "member 3" -> "position report 2"; "member 4" -> "position report 3"; "member 4" -> "ad hoc report 4"; "meeting admin 1" -> "agenda item 4"; "position report 1" -> "discussion/agenda item 1"; "position report 1" -> "discussion/agenda item 2"; "position report 2" -> "discussion/agenda item 3"; "discussion/agenda item 1" -> "action item 1"; "discussion/agenda item 2" -> "motion 1"; "motion 1" -> "motion vote tally 1"; { rank=same; "member 1", "member 2", "member 3", "member 4", "meeting admin 1" }; { rank=same; "position report 1", "position report 2", "position report 3", "ad hoc report 4" }; { rank=same; "discussion/agenda item 1", "discussion/agenda item 2", "discussion/agenda item 3", "agenda item 4" }; { rank=same; "action item 1", "motion 1" };
}
The following needs to be set up in the database before using the meeting module. These require the indicated role to achieve. Full documentation of this is TBD.
- create
positions <position>
, with proper Has Status Report configuration [organization-admin] - assign
members <member>
to theirposition(s) <position>
[organization-admin] - create
tags <tag>
which will be used toinvite
members <member>
tomeetings <meeting>
and to indicate thevoting members <voting member>
[meetings-admin] - set
interest
defaults for Meeting Invite Tags, Meeting Vote Tags, Google Workplace folders [super-admin]
These sections describe what an meeting admin
might want to do when planning a meeting
.
When a meeting
is being planned, the first thing to do is create it.
- bring up
Meetings view
- click New
- Purpose should be a short description of the meeting, e.g., Board Meeting
- Location can be a physical location, a videoconference URL, or by email
- Time the time of the meeting needs to be entered
- Show Actions Since is used to determine which
action items <action item>
are highlighted in themeeting
invitation <invite>
, in theagenda
, etc. This should normally be set to the date of the last meeting of this type. - Invite Tags and Vote Tags should be defaulted, but if not, need to be set to the group(s) used for the
invitations <invite>
andvotes <vote>
respectively - click Create
To access the meeting
you just created, select the row and click View Meeting. You'll see that there is an action item
agenda item
which was automatically created.
In order to invite
members <member>
to a meeting, you must be in the meeting's <meeting>
Meeting view
.
To access the meeting's <meeting>
Meeting view
, from Meetings view
select the meeting and click View Meeting
From the meeting's <meeting>
Meeting view
,
- click Send Invites
- there will be a popup with the list of
members <member>
who will be invited - click Send Invitations
The invitations <invite>
are sent to the members <member>
who resolve to the Invite Tags specified for the meeting
, and an agenda item
with title Attendees is created. As invited <invite>
members <member>
rsvp
to the meeting, their RSVP will show whether they plan to come to the meeting
.
To access the meeting's <meeting>
Meeting Status view
, from Meetings view
select the meeting and click Meeting Status.
From the meeting's <meeting>
Meeting Status view
,
- to determine which
status reports <status report>
are missing, set the Status filter on the top to missing select one or more
positions <position>
you'd like to send reminders toNote
to see all the
positions <position>
, you may need to show additional entries (top left of the table)- click Send Reminders
- reminder emails are sent to
members <member>
who hold these positions
- reminder emails are sent to
- popup indicates which
members <member>
were sent a reminder - click OK to dismiss the popup
If a member
isn't able to use the system to RSVP <rsvp>
and/or enter their status reports <status report>
, the meeting admin
can use the Their Status Report view
to enter the information provided outside the system.
To access the meeting's <meeting>
Their Status Report view
, from Meetings view
select the meeting and click Their Status Report. An empty view is displayed.
To enter the member's <member>
RSVP <rsvp>
and/or status reports <status report>
, select the member in the table heading. From there, you can proceed as if you were the selected member
, using the instructions from My Status Report view
.
To access the meeting's <meeting>
Meeting view
, from Meetings view
select the meeting and click View Meeting. The current agenda
is displayed.
As members <member>
add discussion items <discussion item>
to their status report
, these get added as agenda items <agenda item>
for the meeting.
Once most of the status reports <status report>
have been received, you may want to update the agenda item
titles, or update the headings which will be used to outline the agenda items <agenda item>
in the agenda
and minutes
documents.
From the meeting's <meeting>
Meeting view
,
if the
agenda item
title chosen by themember
is unclear, you can make updates here.- select the
agenda item
, click Edit, then update the Title
Note
discussion item titles shown in the
status report
document will show themember's <member>
original text- select the
each
position
has a defaultagenda
heading, but if this needs to be changed- select the
agenda item
, click Edit, then select the Agenda Heading (newagenda
headings must be created first using theAgenda Headings view
)
- select the
Summary captures what the
member
said in thediscussion item
. If necessary, this can be edited for clarityselect the
agenda item
, click Edit, then update the SummaryNote
this overwrites the words written by the
member
, so should be done only when needed
To access the meeting's <meeting>
Meeting view
, from Meetings view
select the meeting and click View Meeting. The current agenda
is displayed.
As each discussion item
/agenda item
is collected, it is automatically added to the end of the agenda
. Once most of these are collected, it may be desired to reorder them.
From the meeting's <meeting>
Meeting view
,
use the reorder icon () to grab an
agenda item
and place it where desired in theagenda
orderNote
for best results,
agenda items <agenda item>
with the sameagenda
heading should be grouped together
To access the meeting's <meeting>
Meeting view
, from Meetings view
select the meeting and click View Meeting
The meeting admin
may want to add specific agenda items <agenda item>
related to the meeting
, such as Call to Order, Next meeting <date>, or such.
From the meeting's <meeting>
Meeting view
,
- click New
- enter Title
- (optional) enter Summary
- (optional) select Agenda Heading (new
agenda
headings must be created first using theAgenda Headings view
) - click Save
- reorder as needed
To access the meeting's <meeting>
Meeting view
, from Meetings view
select the meeting and click View Meeting
From the meeting's <meeting>
Meeting view
,
- click Generate Docs
- select the documents to be generated
- click Submit
- the documents are generated and the popup disappears
- the link(s) to the documents can be found using the
Meetings view
To access the meeting's <meeting>
Meeting view
, from Meetings view
select the meeting and click View Meeting
From the meeting's <meeting>
Meeting view
,
- click Send Email
- edit Subject and Message as desired
- click Submit
- a popup shows who the mail was sent to
- click OK to dismiss the popup
This section describes what the meeting admin
might want to do during the meeting
.
To access the meeting's <meeting>
Meeting view
, from Meetings view
select the meeting and click View Meeting
From the meeting's <meeting>
Meeting view
,
- select the
agenda item
entitled Attendees - click Edit
- under the Invites table, on the
member
row, click the cell under the Attended column to change click off the selected cell to save -- when select widget disappers, the entry is saved
Important
if you don't click off the selected cell, this change won't be saved
Note
if someone comes to the meeting who isn't in the Invites table, this can be recorded in the Discussion field -- use a bullet list for best formatting in the minutes
document
To access the meeting's <meeting>
Meeting view
, from Meetings view
select the meeting and click View Meeting
From the meeting's <meeting>
Meeting view
,
- select the
agenda item
to be discussed - click Edit
- add discussion text under Discussion
- click Save
To access the meeting's <meeting>
Meeting view
, from Meetings view
select the meeting and click View Meeting
From the meeting's <meeting>
Meeting view
,
- select the
agenda item
being discussed which relates to theaction item
- click Edit
- under Action Items, click New
- enter a concise, specific description of the action item under Action
- generally the Comments section should be left blank at this point (but see the Note below)
select an Assignee who is responsible for the action
Note
a single Assignee is responsible for any
action item
. If the Assignee should be working with others and the names need to be captured, this can be done within the Action, or within the Comments- click Create
To access the meeting's <meeting>
Meeting view
, from Meetings view
select the meeting and click View Meeting
From the meeting's <meeting>
Meeting view
,
- select the
agenda item
being discussed which relates to themotion
- click Edit
- under Motions, click New
- enter a clear, specific description of the
motion
under Motion (see the references for best practices for wording motions) - select the person who made the motion as the Mover
- select the person who seconded the motion as the Seconder
- optionally record any comments about the
motion
which come out during the discussion - if the wording of the
motion
needs to be changed due to the discussion, change this now click Create
Note
the motion can be created as above, and then updated by clicking Edit under Motions
After creating the motion
the motion's Votes table is created. The votes <vote>
are initialized to approved if the member
is recorded as attending the meeting and novote if not.
To edit the votes <vote>
,
- select the
motion
- under Motions click Edit
- under Votes, on the
member
row, click the cell under the Vote column to change click off the selected cell to save -- when select widget disappers, the entry is saved
Important
if you don't click off the selected cell, this change won't be saved
Note
if a
member
comes to the meeting and votes after themotion
was created, their default novote can be changed accordingly without immediately updating their Attendee status- in the
motion
Edit form, select the resulting Status (approved, rejected, tabled) as appropriate - click Save
References
- https://bizfluent.com/how-10030515-make-motion-board-directors-meeting.html
- https://www.boardeffect.com/blog/how-to-write-a-motion-for-a-board-meeting/
These sections describe what an meeting admin
might want to do after a meeting
.
To access the meeting's <meeting>
Meeting view
, from Meetings view
, select the meeting and click View Meeting
From the meeting's <meeting>
Meeting view
,
- click Generate Docs
- select the documents to be generated (in this case Minutes)
- click Submit
- the
minutes
are generated and the popup disappears - the link to the
minutes
can be found using theMeetings view
Prior to any meeting
being created, the super admin
must configure the system with a folder to store the Google Workspace documents which will be created. There's a separate folder configuration for each type of document.
Note
the folders for the types of documents can be the same or different as desired
If it is desired to have the documents accessible from some other folder (e.g., one which was created specifically for the meeting), manual intervention is needed.
The file(s) must be "Added" rather than "Moved" to the specific meeting folder. This allows meeting documents to be found in a well known place for ease of review across meetings, as well as in the folders for each meeting. But more importantly, membertility only has permission to write to certain folders, so if the file is moved that will cause problems with the access, and there will be unpredictable results.
Using Google Workspaces,
- open the folder where the file was created
- to find this folder, click on the file's link in the
Meetings view
, then in the browser address box, change "preview" to "edit" and reload the page - then click on the folder icon to the right of the filename, which opens a pull-down
- then click on the square/arrow icon to the right of the folder name in the pull-down to open the file's folder
- again please don't move the file
- to find this folder, click on the file's link in the
- click on the file you want to add to another folder
- on your keyboard, press Shift + z
- choose the destination folder you want to add the file to
- click Add here
Now the same file(s) can be found by navigating to the well known folder, or by navigating to the meeting folder, and any changes to the file(s) will happen in both folders.
Warning
do not copy the file and save it somewhere else, as this would prevent the system from managing the file contents
Warning
do not edit any of these files directly as the system may overwrite what you've changed. Rather, use the system to make any changes you want captured in the file. Then Generate Docs can be used to make the update to the agenda
or minutes
. Status report <status report>
will be updated automatically.
References
- https://support.google.com/drive/answer/2375091, Move a file or a folder > Save an item to multiple folders