 Home : Solution : Product Features
Resolutions
Work Together
The resolution module allows all your departments to work
together on a single system for drafting, submitting and searching resolutions.
No matter how your departments are organized you will all be able to work in a
consistent manner.
Templates
Whenever you start a new resolution within MinuteTraq you
have the option to start from a Template. When you use a template, MinuteTraq
will automatically fill in the body of the resolution with standard boiler-plate
text and “ fill in the blanks”. With templates those repetitious
resolutions will never bother you again.
When you create a template in MinuteTraq, you have the
ability to make the template global or departmental.
Tracking
MinuteTraq tracks several fields of information on a
resolution including: name, title, status, meeting, department, sponsors,
initiator, preparer, category, project, function and more. All of these fields
are searchable and some can be used to prepare indexes by the Clerk.
Financial Impact Statement
The resolution screen has an integrated financial impact
section to allow anyone submitting a resolution to describe the impact that
their resolution has on the budget. Also, if the resolution affects the budget,
the user has the ability to indicate budget accounts, amounts, date they will be
affected and a memo for each budget line. Budget transfers are even be
accommodated by allowing the preparer to add multiple lines with positive and
negative amounts.
Advanced Editor
The built-in editor supports all types of formatting,
fonts, italics, bolding, strikethrough and more. It also has a built-in spell
checker that underlines the words and provides suggestions like Microsoft Word
does.
Microsoft Word Integration
Although our editor is quite advanced, MinuteTraq provides
a single-click method to open your resolution in Microsoft Word. Preparers can
edit the body of the resolution with Word, and then simply by closing the
document the MinuteTraq resolution is instantly updated.
Resolution Linking
MinuteTraq allows you to link resolutions together for the
purpose of amending, rescinding or replacing older resolutions that were already
adopted. When the newer resolution is adopted, the status of the older (linked)
resolution will automatically change to Amended, Rescinded or Replaced. Further,
you can easily trace the linked resolutions by using the history screen to jump
from original to amending resolutions.
Attachments
The resolutions also allow you to attach, link or reference
other documents that are related or provide supporting information. For example,
you can link to legal documents, blueprints, web sites, scanned documents or any
web-based document system including LaserFische®. With the referenced documents
section anyone who opens your resolution can see what supporting documents you
were looking at.
Recipient Tracking
Another great feature of MinuteTraq is that it allows users
that prepare a resolution to attach recipients and indicate that they should
receive a letter after the meeting occurs. This feature gives you the ability to
update citizens, department heads, businesses, organizations and other people
after a resolution is voted on.
Error Checking
When a user goes to submit a resolution MinuteTraq checks
the resolutions for missing or invalid information. You can setup parameters for
your agency and meetings to require certain fields when a resolution is
submitted. One example is that MinuteTraq allows you to set a resolution due
date for a meeting. If the resolution due date has passed, MinuteTraq will warn
or prevent a user from submitting the resolution for that meeting.
Collaboration Phase
Before a resolution is added to a meeting’s agenda,
MinuteTraq allows your agency to put the resolution through a collaboration
phase whereby the sponsoring board members or specific departments can comment
and sign-off or reject the resolution. The collaboration phase uses the
resolutions category to automatically determine if a resolution needs to
signed-off by different departments.
Auditing & Revisions
After a resolution has been submitted the audit features
will track any changes made to the resolution. When a user tries to save
changes, MinuteTraq will prompt the user for a reason code and comment
describing the changes. There are also options to automatically send emails to
users involved with the resolution, increment a revision number and restart the
collaboration phase by resetting the sign-offs already given.
Security
Before a resolution becomes public information (draft and
collaboration phases) MinuteTraq has a strict security policy in place whereby
the only users that can open the resolution are the ones that need to. During
the draft phase only your department can view the resolutions; during the
collaboration phase, only users on from the collaborating departments and board
members can view it.
History Screen
Every resolution has a history screen where all the audit
information, comments, linked resolutions, meetings, statistics and other
information can be viewed. The history screen is easily accessed through the
toolbar and right-click menus throughout the software.
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Agendas
One-Click Outline
The Agenda Wizard has an Auto-fill feature that
automatically outlines your agenda for you using submitted resolutions, public
hearings, communications and minutes to be accepted. The outline allows you to
drag-and-drop agenda items, create sections and sub-sections, sort items and
more.
Default Outlines (Future Version)
With default outlines you will have even greater control
over the one-click outline process. You will be able to create different
outlines and use the appropriate one for the one-click outline.
Number Resolutions
The agenda wizard will automatically number resolutions and
remember the last number you used. The wizard also allows you to manually set
numbers or change the order within the outline without changing the numbers that
were assigned. With MinuteTraq you can be sure that the resolution numbers are
not duplicated but you have the control you need.
Generate Word Documents
After the one-click outline you can generate both a
full and public version of the agenda in Microsoft
Word format. MinuteTraq uses templates to determine layout and formatting of
your agenda. This means that you can change the look and feel of the Agenda that
MinuteTraq produces to suit your agency.
Draft & Finalized Agenda
Often agendas are tentative and have items being added at
the last minute. The Agenda Wizard now has the ability to finalize an agenda
when it is finished. This means that the first agenda that is produced can be
marked as “Draft” and when you are ready to finalize the agenda MinuteTraq can
regenerate the document with the latest changes and then lock it if you prefer.
Distribute Agenda
Often it is the job of the Clerk to print and distribute
the agenda to board members and attendees. With MinuteTraq the clerk no longer
has to do this because the latest agenda is always kept within the software so
anyone can open and print their own copy simply by using the meeting list or
online calendar. In the next version, you will also be able to email the agenda
to a distribution list.
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Minutes
Import Agenda Outline
When you start the Minutes Maker, the first thing you do is
import the agenda outline. From the Minutes Maker outline, you virtually all of
the same functionality you had in the Agenda Wizard and more. For instance, you
can create walk-ons, add statements and motions as well as sort, drag-and-drop
items in the outline and more.
Votes, Comments & Roll-Call
Using the Minutes Maker outline, when you click on any item
from the agenda you can see the details for that item. For any item in the
outline you can record comments, discussions (including public portions) and
vote record if a vote was taken. Vote records include the result, initiator,
seconder and individual votes of the board members.
Reduce Data Entry
The Minutes Maker does its best to keep your work to a
minimum. For example, there is a Unanimous Vote link, absent board
members are automatically marked absent in the vote records, public hearings and
legal notices are automatically created from special resolutions that were
adopted and more.
Error Checking
The Minutes Maker will continuously check for errors while
you work on the minutes and color code the items if there are any errors or
missing information. This means that you don’t have to worry about missing a
vote or forgetting something because MinuteTraq won’t let you finalize the
minutes until all the warnings and errors are resolved.
Generate Word Document
At any point you can generate the Minutes document in
Microsoft Word. The minutes document is template driven so you can modify the
formatting and layout simply by modifying the Word templates. When you generate
the minutes any votes or comments are added to the generated document.
Transcribing Mode
The Minutes Maker has a chronological view and a
transcribing mode. The chronological view gives you an alternate outline where
you can sort the items in the actual order that they occurred during the
meeting. When using the transcribing mode, MinuteTraq will automatically
timestamp the items as they occur. These timestamps can be used later for
indexing audio.
Legal Notices
MinuteTraq allows you to setup special resolution
categories that will automatically create public hearings and legal notices.
When one of these resolutions are adopted the Minutes Maker will automatically
copy the resolution body and title as the legal notice and provide you with the
option to crop out or remove any text that shouldn’t be displayed in the notice.
Once the legal notice is ready you can simply change the status to ready and the
notice will automatically be included in the letter factory.
Audio & Video Tracking
MinuteTraq will now allow you to track your audio and video
recordings along with the minutes. You can create a description, assign
reference numbers, indicate starting times and more all while linking them to
the meeting. To add even more detail, MinuteTraq will allow you to index or link
items on the minutes to time-indexes within the audio or video. Imagine looking
up a resolution and knowing exactly what tape and time index on the tape that
the resolution was discussed.
Audio Integration
In the upcoming releases of MinuteTraq you will be able to
import audio recordings, and link index markers within the media to actual items
on the minutes. This level of integration will allow you or your citizens to
pull up a resolution and immediately listen to a discussion of the resolution
from any meeting.
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Letters & Legal Notices
Letter Factory
The Letter Factory will organize all of your resolutions
and legal notices for a single meeting and automatically generate custom letters
for recipients and print or email them.
Recipients & Distribution Lists
MinuteTraq gives your agency the ability to maintain a
global and departmental list of recipients and distribution lists for the
purpose of sending letters and legal notices. Every recipient can indicate if
they prefer receiving letters through email, printed copies or both. The same
recipient list used by the Letter Factory can be used by the Recipient Linking
when resolutions are submitted.
Automatic Letters
MinuteTraq allows you to link distribution lists to
categories, legal notice types and more as well as having special distribution
lists like the “All Resolutions” distribution list. When the Letter Factory is
first opened you can click the “Create All Missing Letters” button and instantly
MinuteTraq will automatically queue letters using these linked distribution
lists. Of course, you still have the ability to manually add letters by adding
recipients to a resolution or a resolution to a recipient.
Sign-Off Sheets
Sometimes you need to know if someone received their
letter, for example, when you send a legal notice to a newspaper. The Letter
Factory allows you to include a sign-off sheet for any letter and will
automatically insert the sign-off sheet at the beginning of the letter. The
sign-off sheet has a signature line for the recipient to sign and return to you.
Generate Custom Letters
When you are ready to generate your letters you can
manually check the ones you want to generate or select all of them. After the
Letter Factory is done generating the letters you can view them, edit them or
regenerate them. When they are ready they can be emailed, printed or both and
MinuteTraq will keep track of the date and time that they were actually sent.
Confirmations (Next Version)
To take tracking your letters and legal notices another
step further, you can use the confirmation screen to mark letters as “Confirmed”
when you receive a returned sign-off sheet or verify the letter was received
over the phone. The legal notices go even another step further by allowing you
to confirm that they were published correctly by the papers.
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Web Site
Real Time Data
Because MinuteTraq is a hosted service, during the entire
time you are using the software, citizens can log on to your website or
TownClerk.com and get real-time data. To accomplish this you don’t have to do
anything because MinuteTraq is always updating the website and you don’t have to
worry about it.
Tracking & Usage
Have you ever wondered how many people have opened your
resolution or public hearing? Or if they are in-favor or opposed to the
legislation? With TownClerk.com you will find out because anytime a resolution
is accessed over the site we keep a log so you can find out how many times a
resolution has been opened.
Open API via XML Web Services
Because our entire model uses .NET Web Services, your
webmaster or other 3 rd party websites could request all the public information
that is available.
Upload Wizard
Another way of providing your minutes to a third-party
website is by using our Web Upload Wizard which will package all the minutes,
documents and data for a meeting and email to your webmaster. From this they can
use the XML datasets and documents to build their own searches, lists and other
website functions.
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Other Records
Public Hearings
MinuteTraq allows you to track all your public hearings
with the software. Besides automatically creating them from special resolutions,
you can manually schedule public hearings to appear on a meetings agenda. If a
public hearing is adjourned from one meeting to another, MinuteTraq will
maintain all the history.
Communications
MinuteTraq also allows you to receive and track
communications, reports, bid openings and other documents. When entering a
communication you can indicate the date and time it was received, meeting to
announce it, subject, details and even upload a scanned document or file. When
preparing an agenda, the auto-fill will automatically add the communication to
the outline.
News & Events
Now your calendar within MinuteTraq and TownClerk.com can
have more than just meetings. You can announce events and other things so the
public and your organization can find out about them.
Polls (Future Version)
Sometimes it is hard to judge what citizens are thinking,
but now MinuteTraq allows you to schedule polls that will automatically show on
the TownClerk.com website. The polls will allow you to get opinions and comments
from eCitizens to help you better judge.
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Custom Documents
Define Custom Records
Sometimes you can’t include everything with software. With
MinuteTraq you can create custom record types with user definable fields for
text, dates, numbers and dropdowns. Users can add records, include a file to
upload and even perform searches.
Import History
No one wants to loose their old data. With the custom
documents you can import your old minutes, resolutions and related documents
into MinuteTraq and then search them. Hard to believe… just ask one of our
customers who imported over 13 years of their resolutions and minutes and now
can search all of it.
Searches
All of the user-definable fields are searchable as well as
the body of the documents. Text searches, date ranges, numeric ranges, dropdowns
are all searchable.
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Other Tools
Indexing
The Minutes Index Wizard is a tool that allows you to
create a set of indexes for your master minutes book. You can generate these
indexes anytime you want and for any date range. The indexes include:
Resolutions by Sponsor, by Category, by Number and Meetings by Date. Each index
includes all of the meetings and page numbers from each minutes document where
they can be found.
Archive CD
The Archive Wizard will allow you to download all of your
minutes, agendas, resolutions and related documents for any date range and then
creates a set of HTML indexes for all your documents and data. These files and
indexes are copied to a local folder and you have the ability to burn them to a
CD. Imagine how easy this could make FOIL requests. At the very least you can
have the peace of mind that all your data and documents are in a single place in
a standard format that you can use.
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System
Automatic Updates
Because MinuteTraq is a service all of the computers that
use MinuteTraq are automatically updated with new features, enhancements and
fixes. When you first connect to your agency, MinuteTraq will check if there is
a newer version of the software and prompt you to download and install it. With
automatic updates you are always current.
No Servers Necessary
We make it easy for you to get started because there is no
equipment or servers to buy. Once you sign up you simply connect to our servers
and your instantly up and running without any up front cost.
Work from Any Location
Because we host your data and we use the internet to access
your data, you can be anywhere in the world and still participate just like you
would if you were in the office. You can work from home, separate buildings or
from an airport terminal... it doesn't matter where you are.
Encryption
MinuteTraq uses the same 128-bit SSL encryption that banks
use. All of your data is secure and safe.
Backups
We backup your data nightly so you don't have to worry
about it.
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