CouncilPapers.

Before you start

Minutes are written against the active agenda for a meeting. The meeting must have taken place and the agenda must be committed before minutes can be started.

Step 1 — Start the minutes

Go to the View Meeting page. In the Agendas table, the active agenda will show a Start Minutes button in the Actions column. Click it.

If minutes have already been started, the button will show as View Minutes instead.

Step 2 — Minutes settings

The Edit Minutes Settings page opens. Complete the following:

Heading of Minutes — the heading that appears at the top of the published minutes. This is pre-populated with a standard form such as "Minutes of the Meeting of [committee] held in [venue] on [date] at [time]". Edit if needed.

Attendance — all councillors addressed in the agenda are listed, each with a dropdown to set their status:

Use Tab to move between councillors and the keyboard shortcuts P (Present), A (Absent), or E (Excused) to set each status quickly.

Other People in Attendance — a free-text field for recording non-councillors present, such as the Town Clerk or members of the public.

Minute Start Note — records when the meeting started, e.g. "The meeting started at 7:30 pm".

Minute End Note — records when the meeting ended, e.g. "The meeting ended at 9:34 pm".

Click Save to proceed to the main minutes page.

Step 3 — The minutes page

The minutes page lists all agenda items. A toolbar at the top provides the main actions:

Step 4 — Writing each item

Click Edit Entry beneath any item to open the Edit Minutes Item form. The original agenda text is displayed at the top for reference.

The form has three fields:

Pre-Item Notes — notes recorded before the item was discussed, such as "Cllr X left the room".

Minute Discussion and Resolution — the main minute text for this item. Write a concise record of the discussion and any decisions made. See below for guidance on recording resolutions.

Post-Item Notes — notes recorded after the item concluded, such as "Cllr X returned to the room".

Three save options are available at the bottom of the form:

• Save and Previous — saves and moves to the previous item
• Save and Next — saves and moves to the next item
• Save and End — saves and returns to the minutes page

Recording resolutions — the Action style

When the council makes a formal decision, CouncilPapers provides a special Action style to format it correctly in the printed minutes.

To apply it, type the resolution text in the Minute Discussion and Resolution field. The resolution line must begin with an action verb followed by a colon — for example:

Resolved: to elect Cllr Smith as chairman for the following year.

Select that line and click the A button (the red A at the right end of the top toolbar row) to apply the Action style. In the printed minutes, the action verb appears in bold and the line is indented — the standard council formatting for recorded decisions.

Common action verbs include Resolved, Recommended, and Noted.

Applying the same text to multiple child items

Where an agenda item has sub-items that all require the same minute text — for example, a list of planning applications all noted without discussion — click Set all Child Entries on the parent item.

A form opens showing all child items as checkboxes and a single Minute Discussion and Resolution field. Write the text once, select which child items it should apply to, and click Save. The same text is applied to all selected children simultaneously.

Adding items not on the agenda

Use Add Additional Item to Minutes to record matters that arose during the meeting but were not on the original agenda — for example, a procedural motion or an agreement to defer an item. These are added without an item number.