Agenda Center Overview

Overview

The Agenda Center provides an easy way to create and display agendas for civic organizations. You can create templates for repeated use, set up workflows to ensure accuracy, and enter minutes directly into each agenda. You can also customize how agendas are created and organized.

The Agenda Center main page displays all categories created for each group, along with any agenda categories within those groups. From this page, you can create new categories, set properties for the Agenda Center, and manage permissions for different groups.

Important Note:

The name of the Agenda Center can be customized based on local needs; we’ll explain it later in this document.

Functions

• Customize the Agenda Center's public side and create rules related to the creation and customization of agendas using the Properties tab: Options button

• Set up email notifications for System Administrators and Owners when a new agenda category is created

• Allow a copy of the agenda to be posted in the Archive Center

• Allow users to move items in folders

• Unpublish agendas to remove or modify them

• Create a public name for the Agenda Center

• Rename the Agenda Center for the Admin side of a site

Benefits

• Reduces redundant work by creating agenda templates

• Customizes the creation and organization of your agenda

• Saves time by entering minutes directly into each agenda

• Creates a one-stop shop for the public to view agenda minutes, meeting videos, and downloads of agendas, minutes, or complete packets

Agenda Center Best Practices

Learn more about the Best Practices for the Agenda Center's agendas, minutes, packets, and supporting documents.

Formatting

• Categories and titles should be named intuitively and consistently. For example:

  • Category Name: Planning Commission

    • Regular Agenda Name: Planning Commission Regular Meeting Agenda (PDF)

    • No Agenda Name: Planning Commission Regular Meeting (No Agenda)

    • Complex Agendas: Planning Commission Regular Meeting Material

• Within content, links to documents inside a category should open in a new window. Links to the categories themselves should open in the same window

• Multiple supporting documents can be uploaded together as a single item for an agenda

  Note:

  If an Agenda Packet exceeds 40MB in size, it will not be parsed and will not appear in search results.

Naming Conventions and Examples

• Agenda Center Naming Conventions and Examples

Agenda Center Walkthrough

Categories, agendas, minutes, and items organize the Agenda Center. It provides an easy way to create and display agendas for civic organizations. You can create templates for repeated use, set up workflows to ensure accuracy, and enter minutes directly into each agenda. You can also customize how agendas are created and organized. You can manage permissions for different user groups and follow best practices to keep content accurate and consistent.

Views

Back-End

Front-End

Walkthrough

1. To add an agenda, you must first:

   • Create a Category: Categories organize agendas

Simple (Uploading)

1. Uploading Simple Agendas

   • Associate Agenda with a Calendar Event

2. Amending Simple Agendas

3. Add a Media Link to an Agenda

4. Upload Simple Minutes

5. Upload Simple Minutes with Simple Agendas

6. Amend Simple Minutes

Complex (Building)

Setup

1. Modify the Category

   • Properties

     • Create Rules and Alerts

     • Set Permissions

   • Default Content

   • Default Template

     • Apply a Default Template

   • Custom Fields

   • Default Messages

2. Create Default Items

   • Delete a Default Item

3. Create Workflows

Create an Agenda

1. Add Items

   • Attach Documents to Items

2. Workflow Approval Process

3. Build an Agenda

   • Associate an Agenda with a Calendar Event

4. Amend a Complex Agenda

5. Add a Media Link to an Agenda

Create Complex Minutes

1. Create Complex Minutes

2. Add or Remove a Draft Watermark to Minutes

General Functions and Tabs in Agenda Center

General Functions

• Customize the Agenda Center's public side and create rules related to the creation and customization of agendas using the Properties tab: Options button

• Set up email notifications for System Administrators and Owners when a new agenda category is created

• Allow a copy of the agenda to be posted in the Archive Center

• Allow users to move items in folders

• Unpublish agendas to remove or modify them

• Create a public name for the Agenda Center

• Rename the Agenda Center for the administrative side of a site

Tabs

• Main:

  • View Options

  • Bulk Actions

  • Go to Email Lists

  • Go to Archives

  • Add Category

  • Edit a Category

• Properties:

  • View and Modify Module Functionality Properties

  • View and Modify the Default Messages

  • View and Modify Modules Default Agenda Format

• Permissions:

  • Permissions on the Module Level

Agenda Center Permissions

The Agenda Center uses different permission settings than other modules. It is recommended to assign permissions at the category group level instead of giving global access to all agenda categories.

• Author: Can create agenda items for an agenda but cannot create an agenda.

• Publisher: Can create and modify agendas for review by an owner or system administrator. Can publish and unpublish items, but cannot publish or unpublish agendas. Can also add minutes to an agenda.

• Owner: Has full rights to their group’s agenda categories. Only the Owner and System Administrator can publish a completed agenda to the front end of the site. The Owner can also override any workflow rules for that agenda category.

• System Administrator: Has rights over all modules and content on the site.

Why is it Different

In some states, only certain staff roles are allowed to publish agendas for a municipal board or commission. Because CivicPlus serves customers with many different government structures across states and counties, requirements can vary. To support these needs and make the system easier to use, CivicPlus includes a workflow in the Agenda Center module.

For this reason, the Agenda Center requires Owner permissions to publish an agenda to the public. Your office can have many Publishers who can create, build, and edit agendas for review. However, only Owners and System Administrators can publish agendas.

Resources

• Comparing the Archive Center and Agenda Center

• Collapse Agenda Center Categories

• Copy a Link to an Agenda Center Category

• Copy Most Recent Agenda Link

• Document Tags for Simple and Complex Agendas

• Import Agenda Center Subscribers

• Move an Agenda to a Different Category

• Pin a Category to the Top

• Set Category Permissions in Agenda Center