The team has identified Teams as the suitable portal to deliver online official council meetings. Its versatility allows Cllrs to join meetings either through video or dial in options in a secure setting.
It also allows the chair to mute attendees and kick disruptive people on the call if necessary.
The council will be live streaming meetings simultaneously on YouTube with comments enabled to allow full public participation, this is currently under review with a member of the communications team potential fulfilling this role. Members and the public dialling into the meeting can keep their number private with the additional of 141 in front of the conference number to keep their phone number private. The moderator of the meeting also holds the capability to stream the meeting on the same device to ensure all processes are followed.
Cllrs were extremely receptive to the move to fully online meetings as they already had been issued with a iPad along with access to Modern.Gov that gives them access to the bookmarked papers and confidential papers not available to the public.
The team have clearly set out meeting etiquette and set out standard procedures for speakers to follow which are sent with every invite to the meetings. Votes and invitations will been managed through the Democratic Services support to ensure orderly conduct at the meetings.
The Microsoft license partner have been supporting the digital team at the council through the extension of existing license capability
In order to mitigate against connectivity issues the team has ensured that they selected a platform that also allowed attendees to dial into the call, giving them the minimum opportunity to contribute to meetings if they had Wi-Fi issues in rural not spots.
The council are also leading on supporting their Parish Councils providing guidance where possible and tech support. Parishes in the area welcomed recommendations to take advantage of Skype’s new policy on hosting meetings without the need to have an account.
How is the new approach being sustained?
The team are testing the software and processes extensively over the coming weeks to ensure everything is prepared and working for the first full council meeting. The team are investing time and effort into this process as it will be an essential resource for the foreseeable future and could be a permanent aspect of council meetings in the future.
Lessons learned:
The team highlighted the need to get meeting etiquette standardised and understood as a crucial prerequisite to any meeting to ensure that proceedings run as smoothly as possible. Draft standing orders will need to be considered to reflect the new regulations to enable meetings to happen in a virtual way.
Contact: Dave Richardson ICT Business Manager [email protected]