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Posting Meeting Notices & Minutes

Meeting Notices & Minutes: Complying with the Wisconsin Open Meeting & Records Laws

Chairs of governing units and shared governance (elective and appointive) committees are required by the Wisconsin Open Meeting and Records Law to post notice of all meetings at least 24 hours prior to the start of the meeting (Exceptions can be made in urgent cases with notice up to two hours prior to the start of the meeting). All meetings are to be posted on the University "Master Calendar," which can be found on the UW-Green Bay home page or at http://calendar.uwgb.edu. Someone in every office area has been designated to post meetings on the "Master Calendar." Chairs should arrange postings with your unit's designated room scheduler. Please give your scheduler the name of your committee and indicate that the Event Type must be Governance-Open Meeting in order to insure that the posting is properly captured on the SOFAS website.

The "Master Calendar" feed through the SOFAS website is the official record of all open meetings. Governance units and committees must send agendas and minutes to the SOFAS office for official record keeping. Search and Screen committee chairs should contact Christopher Paquet, Legal Counsel, regarding guidelines for posting meeting notices. Other unit subcommittees appointed by unit chairs or deans are exempt from the Open Meeting Law.

Summary

In summary, to comply with State statutes, chairs of academic units and governance committees should do the following:

  1. Post notice on the "Master Calendar." For directions for posting to the Master Calendar, see Campus Calendar Information.  To submit a meeting to the calendar, use the submission form.
  2. Send an agenda via email of the meeting that clearly indicates the date, time, and place of the meeting so that this notice will arrive in the Secretary of the Faculty and Staff office (SOFAS@uwgb.edu) at least 48 hours in advance of the meeting. If you cannot give us 48 hours, you should call (x2211) to make sure the meeting is posted in a timely fashion. In urgent cases, a two-hour posting may meet the requirements of the law.
  3. Take summary minutes of your meeting and send both a draft copy and the approved version (clearly indicating the date of approval) to the SOFAS Office SOFAS@uwgb.edu for submission to the official file kept on each unit and committee. These files are the official record of your unit or committee activities and are deemed open records in compliance with the Open Records Law.

If you think you may need a closed session at a meeting, please call the Secretary of the Faculty and Staff office (x2211) so we may review with you the specifics of calling a closed meeting and discuss when this process is allowable by law. Also note that the law does not allow using email to conduct committee business that would typically be handled at a meeting.