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P1 Running a Public Website Day to Day

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Lesson 5 of 8 · Simulation

Meetings: agendas, minutes, notices and dates

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Simulation

Post a meeting with its agenda

A working copy of the real screen. Use it as you would the real one. Nothing you type leaves this page.

This exercise runs in your browser and needs JavaScript. The lesson text above covers the same steps.

Not done yet.

Give every public meeting one page that holds its notice, agenda, packet, recording and minutes, posted on the timeline your state's open meetings law sets.

Notes

Step 1 of 7

Start here

Meetings are the most legally sensitive thing most public websites publish. A notice posted late, an agenda that changes without a trace or minutes that never appear can draw a complaint, and in some states can put a board's actions at risk.

This lesson is a pattern for meeting pages that holds up.

Step 2 of 7

Know your rules first

Your state's open meetings law sets how far ahead notice must be given, what it must contain and where it must be posted. Some states count a website as a required posting place, and others require a physical posting with the website as a courtesy. Local charters and board rules can add more.

Write your rules down on one page, kept with your meeting checklist:

  • notice period for regular meetings, special meetings and emergency meetings,
  • where notice must be posted (physical board, website, newspaper),
  • what the notice must contain,
  • when minutes must be available, and in what form.

Your clerk or attorney knows these rules. The Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press keeps a state-by-state Open Government Guide that summarizes each state's open meetings and records laws.

Step 3 of 7

One page per meeting

Give every meeting its own page or calendar entry, and keep everything about that meeting on it:

  1. Date, time and place, written as in Writing for Residents: "Tuesday, November 10, 2026, 7 p.m., Town Hall, Room 104."
  2. How to attend remotely, if offered, and how to comment.
  3. The agenda, as a web page or an accessible document.
  4. The packet, with the documents the board will discuss.
  5. The recording, if you record, with captions.
  6. Minutes, labeled draft or approved.

A resident looking for "what happened at the November school board meeting" should find one page with all of it.

Step 4 of 7

Post on time, and record when you did

Post the notice and agenda by the deadline your law sets, and keep a record of when you posted. Your website may show a published date. A screenshot with the date and time, saved with the meeting records, helps if anyone questions the posting later.

Step 5 of 7

When things change

  • Amended agenda: post the new version, label it "Amended agenda, posted [date and time]" and keep the original available.
  • Cancelled meeting: keep the page. Put "Cancelled" at the top, with when it was cancelled and the new date if there is one.
  • Moved location or time: update the page and the calendar, put the change at the top and check that every place the old details appear is corrected.

Step 6 of 7

Minutes

Post draft minutes if your practice or law allows, labeled "Draft, not yet approved." After the board approves them, replace the draft with the approved version and say so: "Approved December 8, 2026."

Step 7 of 7

Accessibility for agendas, packets and recordings

Agendas, packets and minutes you post after your Title II compliance date are new content and must meet WCAG 2.1, Level AA. ADA.gov lists the dates: April 26, 2027 for governments serving 50,000 or more people, and April 26, 2028 for smaller governments and special districts.

In practice:

  • Build agendas from an accessible template with real headings and numbered items.
  • Ask staff and applicants to send packet documents as accessible files, not scans.
  • Caption meeting recordings. WCAG 2.1 requires captions for prerecorded video with audio (Success Criterion 1.2.2), and for live video (1.2.4).

Sources

Task

Your task at your institution

Quiz

4 questions. Choose one answer for each, then check them. Each answer shows its reason.

1. Who sets how far ahead a meeting notice must be posted?
2. Draft minutes are posted before the board approves them. How should they be labeled?
3. A meeting is cancelled. What happens on the website?
4. An agenda posted in 2027 is a new document. What must it meet under Title II, once your compliance date arrives?
Show the answers
  1. B. Your state's open meetings law, and any local rules. Notice periods and posting places come from state law and local rules. Know yours and write them down.
  2. B. Clearly as draft, then replaced and marked approved after the vote. Residents and reporters need to know which version is official.
  3. B. Mark it cancelled at the top, with the date it was cancelled and any new date. People who saw the notice need to see the change. A deleted page looks like an error.
  4. B. WCAG 2.1 Level AA, like any new content. The preexisting-document exception covers files posted before the compliance date, and only some of them. New agendas are new content.