Board reviews BoardDocs/Diligent portal for public agendas, executive-session controls and live-streaming
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Summary
Newberry County Board of Trustees heard a demonstration from Diligent/BoardDocs on an online portal to publish agendas, manage internal (member-only) materials and integrate live streaming and closed-captioning. Board members asked about security, costs, ADA compliance, device options and who will manage uploads.
Newberry County Board of Trustees members heard a demonstration of BoardDocs (Diligent) on the district’s plan to post agendas, minutes and other board materials online and to give board members device access for meeting documents.
The presentation by Matt Irvin, a Diligent representative, described a public portal linked from the district website that shows upcoming meetings, searchable agenda packets and a split-screen view for agendas and attachments. “The goal is ... to be more transparent with the public, save you time on the back end … and then also, making sure your ADA is accessible,” Irvin said. He said the product uses Amazon Web Services hosting and single sign-on for security and that he would provide technical security specifications to district IT staff.
Board members and staff asked detailed questions about features and operations. They were shown: a public calendar and meeting pages; the ability to host or link meeting video, with time-stamped links to jump to agenda items; separate public and internal (member-only) agendas and attachments for executive-session material; a document library with public and private folders; a subscribe/notify feature that emails citizens when agendas post; tools for drafting and publishing minutes; recorded-vote and attendance tracking; presentation/timer features for the meeting room; and markup/highlight tools for individual members.
Board members pressed on security and records retention. Irvin said he would send the product’s security specifications and that the system stores files on AWS and supports single sign-on. He declined to provide detailed IT language during the demo but offered to follow up. The board also asked whether live streaming would continue on the district’s existing platform; Irvin said the district could continue to stream with its encoder (BoxCast) and host recordings on YouTube if desired, while using BoardDocs as the portal for agendas and captions.
Members asked about accessibility for people with hearing or visual impairments. Irvin said the platform supports closed captioning and screen‑reader functionality when paired with the district’s streaming setup; the board’s staff noted they must still confirm specific accessibility workflows and accuracy of live captions compared with YouTube auto‑captioning.
Pricing, implementation and administration drew several questions. Irvin said pricing is enrollment-based and that standard product updates are included; additional charges apply for large premium features or separate live-stream-manager services (an optional encoder/timestamp/real-time-captioning bundle). He said implementation would include an assigned implementation specialist and multiple setup calls to customize templates, membership groups and site layout. The vendor said unlimited templates and user accounts are available; committees or multiple private groups can raise the cost.
The board previewed sample devices (laptops, iPads and stylus-enabled tablets) that would be available to trustees for accessing materials. Staff said a small set of devices was present for trustees to test.
No formal decision to purchase was recorded during the meeting. District staff said they will collect feedback, seek pricing clarifications and return with a recommendation and cost options for the board to consider.
