Submitting Meeting Notices
Submitting Meeting Notices
The Public Body must create a meeting notice, save that document as a PDF and email it to Agendas, taking into account the City Clerk’s Office deadlines for submission. The City Clerk’s Office staff will then create a meeting event on the City Calendar and will link the submitted meeting notice to that Calendar event as well as list the meeting noticed under the related Public Body’s agendas section of the City Website.
Steps:
- Public Body: Review the City Clerk’s Office daily deadline for submitting Meeting Notices.
- Public Body: Create a typed meeting notice, save it as a PDF; the file’s name should contain the name of the Public Body and the Date of the Meeting.
- Public Body: Email the PDF file to Agendas, Subject: Public Body’s Name. Body of Email: Meeting Day/Time, and Location.
- City Clerk: Will link the Meeting Notice document to the City Calendar.
- City Clerk: Notify the Public Body via email confirming the meeting has been posted.
- Public Body: Should review the City’s Calendar for accuracy.
The Clerk’s Office will post all compliant meeting notices at least 48 hours in advance of the public meeting, excluding Saturdays, Sundays, and legal holidays.
Per the Open Meeting Law, meeting notices must:
- Be posted at least 48 hours in advance of the public meeting, excluding Saturdays, Sundays, and legal holidays (City Clerk)
- Be in a legible, easily understandable format (Public Body)
- Contain the date, time, and full location of the meeting (Public Body)
- List the topics that the Chair reasonably anticipates will be discussed at the meeting with sufficient specificity to advise the public of the issues the public body will discuss (Public Body)
- The date and time that the notice was posted is conspicuously recorded on the notice (City Clerk)
To allow for enough time to meet, at least 48 hours in advance of the public meeting, excluding Saturdays, Sundays and legal holidays, the Clerk’s Office will post meeting notices at 2:30 pm Monday thru Thursday and at 11:30 am on Friday and must receive a complete meeting notice (see Public Bodies section above) 50 hours (excluding Saturdays, Sundays and legal holidays) ahead of the meeting time, which is 2 hours ahead of the 48 hours mandatory minimum.
For example: A Monday 9 am meeting will need to received by the Clerk’s Office before 2:30 pm on Wednesday, as 2:30 PM would be the latest deadline to have the Clerk’s Office post the meeting notice and be compliant.
| Daily Deadline to Submit to Clerk’s Office | Earliest Meeting Time, per Deadline |
| Monday 2:30 PM | Wednesday 4:30 PM |
| Tuesday 2:30 PM | Thursday 4:30 PM |
| Wednesday 2:30 PM | Friday 4:30 PM |
| Thursday 2:30 PM | Monday 4:30 PM |
| Friday 10:30 AM | Tuesday 1:30 PM |
The Open Meeting Law supports the principle that the democratic process depends on the public having knowledge about the considerations underlying governmental action. The Open Meeting Law therefore requires that most meetings of public bodies be held in public. If you have questions about the Open Meeting Law, you may contact the Division of Open Government by phone at (617) 963-2540 or via email at openmeeting@state.ma.us.
You may also find Open Meeting Law information through the Attorney General’s Office at Open Meeting Law Educational Materials.