RocketFusion CMS

Open Govt - Managing Boards & Members

Overview

The Open Government module has two parts: The boards, and the calendar. Before you can begin creating meetings with agendas using this module, you must make sure you have all your boards and members in place.

Five pages you should read to get the whole picture:


Setting Up Boards, Committees, Commissions, Councils

Site Admins should go to the Admin Panel (mouse-over the RocketFusion logo, top left of screen) and click on Manage Govt. It is on this page that you can manage your various boards and members.

If you already have some boards set up, you will see a table grid with the board names on the left and a number of columns on the right.

The first two columns show the number of seats that board has and the number of current members. If any boards are short, their membership number will be highlighted in yellow. If they have no members at all it will be highlighted in red. If the board is not set to “Active” by checking the box when editing the board, the board name itself will show up in yellow.

You will also see two columns labeled Calendar and eList. Each board should be assigned to a calendar category to help link calendar events with boards, and a contact list so the public can subscribe via email to meeting reminders and alerts. To set up those categories and lists, go to the calendar and click the orange Manage Categories button, and the contact page and click the orange Lists button.

You will also see three columns headed with Schedule, Blurb, and Contact. The “Schedule” is a simple one-line piece of text that outlines the general schedule of the board, ie; “First Thursday of the month at 6:00.” This text shows up on both the public view of list of boards under each board name, as well as on each board’s main page. The “blurb” is also text that appears on the board’s main page, outlining their mission or what have you. The “contact” is the contact info that appears at the top of the page, with names, phone numbers, street address, etc.

If any board displayed in the table is missing any members or information, there will be yellow. The less yellow the better. If your table has no yellow, pat yourself on the back and get a coffee or tea.

CREATING NEW BOARDS

To create a new board, mouse-over the white […] button and click the green New Board button. You will be dropped onto the edit page for a new board, called “**New Board**” which you need to edit.

Make sure to supply all requested information on the Basic tab and click the red Save Changes button. Click the Contact and Blurb buttons to add that information.

To add members to the committee

If creating this blank board was a mistake, you can click the [_] Delete Board checkbox and save changes. You cannot delete a board once it has members or any events in the calendar. If you need to decommission a board, simply set it to inactive.

ADDING MEMBERS

If a board has any empty seats you will see a long green button labeled Add Member / List Vacancies. To add a member you simply click the button, which opens up a small form. In the name field, click the drop-down to choose from a list of existing people. Type in their Role on the board (chair, clerk, 1st alternative, etc), whether they’re elected or appointed (people who are elected have their contact info displayed on the website), and the start and end dates of their term.

If you want to add someone who does not appear in the drop-down list, you should mouse-over the white […] button and click the green New Person button. This will create a “** New Member **” record and will bring you to the form to edit the new person’s information. Enter in their name, email (so they can get meeting reminders), phone number(s), and street address. Again: committee members who are elected will have their contact info displayed on the website, by law.

Once you have created your new person, return to the Manage Boards page, click the board name, and click the Add Member button.

Appears in: Open Government Module