Quick Start: Publish your first agenda

The full path from signup to a public agenda. Assumes onboarding is done and your org has at least one body. You'll work in your org's staff dashboard.

TL;DR

1. Create the meeting — body, date, time, location.
2. Draft items — title, type, description, owner, staff report.
3. Assign approvers — every approver must approve before publishing.
4. Announce the meeting — public sees it exists, but not the agenda yet.
5. Publish the agenda — full content goes public; the PDF generates.

1. Create the Meeting

Open the meetings management page and start a new meeting. You'll need:

• Body — which group is meeting (e.g., "City Council")
• Date and time — scheduled start and end
• Location — physical or virtual

The meeting starts as a Draft — not yet announced, not yet published, no items, and invisible to the public. If you've hit the free-tier meeting limit, a quota banner appears with the next steps. See Meetings.

2. Draft Your Items

Open the meeting in the agenda builder and add items. For each:

• Title and type (resolution, report, public hearing — see Agenda Items)
• Department and staff owner
• Description and recommended action
• Duration estimate
• Staff report attachment (required for public-hearing items)

The sidebar's readiness panel flags missing fields. Items can still be saved with warnings — they just aren't fully ready to publish.

3. Collect Approvals

On each item, open the approver-management UI and add the people who must sign off. They get a notification with a review link.

When every approver approves, the item moves to Approved. Rejection is advisory — it flags the concern but doesn't block other approvers, and a later approval can clear it.

If your org reuses an approval pattern, save it once as a routine and apply it to future items. See Approval Workflow.

4. Announce the Meeting

Use the announce action on the meeting (in the Public Visibility card). This announces the meeting and publishes its date, time, and location — no item content yet.

The compliance check runs against the strictest applicable noticing law. Past the deadline? You'll see a warning and can override with a logged reason. See Announcing Meetings.

5. Publish the Agenda

Trigger the publish action on the meeting. This:

• Marks the agenda as published
• Publishes a copy of every item that doesn't already have one
• Generates a PDF in the background
• Records the publish in the audit log

The public now sees the full agenda.

What's Next?

• Republished an item? → My PDF looks stale
• Setting up reusable approval flows? → How do approvals work?
• Adding more staff? → How do I invite a teammate?

Related

• Meetings · Agendas · Agenda Items
• Approval Workflow · Announcing Meetings