Board staff, chairs push to clear minutes backlog and adopt a single template

Board staff and committee chairs told the leadership committee they are working to clear a backlog of written minutes and asked chairs to submit minutes in Microsoft Word using a shared template to speed posting.

Jeremy Huynarke, the district manager, and committee chairs described a multistep publication process that has delayed posting: the chair or committee submits minutes, board staff format them on letterhead, and staff convert and upload them to the public site. The committee discussed specific obstacles: minutes submitted in Google Docs required extra conversion steps, and staff turnover and training needs have slowed the handoff.

Jeremy demonstrated the basic guidance he said staff will give committees: “Agenda becomes minutes. The Webex link and the location, that goes away. It's just the committee, the date, and the day,” he said, summarizing the expected Word format. The committee emphasized that video remains the primary verbatim record, but written minutes are required upon request; one speaker told the group that written minutes should be available within two weeks of a meeting.

Chairs agreed to appoint a person at the start of each committee meeting to be responsible for taking minutes and to use a published template. Leadership asked Jeremy and staff to circulate a minutes template and to schedule a short “minutes 101” training so committee volunteers and staff can complete the publishing steps without repeated conversions.

The committee said clearing the backlog and standardizing the format will address the board’s obligations under the city charter and improve public access to records.