Open Meeting Laws: Key Considerations & Compliance Best Practices

Follow these best practices to comply with open meeting laws. 

Provide Public Notice 

Boards must provide sufficient public notice about when and where meetings will occur. They should also share key details about the meeting, such as its purpose or goal, whether it’s a regular meeting or being held for an emergency or other special reason, and whether there will be a public comment period. 

If your board offers a public comment period, be transparent about time limits, requirements to submit questions in advance, and other key details to make sure the meeting can run as smoothly as possible. 

Remain Compliant 

Compliance regulations usually require voting results to be made public. Keeping and publishing detailed meeting minutes can help to ensure all required information remains available following the meeting. 

Step-by-Step Guide for Following Open Meeting Laws

Here are some important steps for boards to take to ensure their meetings comply with open meeting laws. 

Create and Share Agenda 

A board chair, secretary, or other leader is responsible for creating a detailed meeting agenda and sharing it with all board members before each meeting. This document provides advance notice of discussion topics, ensuring that the meeting has direction and gives attendees time to prepare questions. 

In most cases, your agenda must also be made available to the public at least 24 hours prior to the meeting. This ensures attendees have a reasonable amount of time to review the topics and arrange to attend the meeting. Agendas may be made available later in certain situations, such as emergency meetings. Even in these situations, they must be available no later than two hours before the meeting is scheduled to begin. 

Follow Agenda 

Meeting discussions should follow the agenda closely as possible. Your board should respect time restrictions as much as possible by writing agendas that cover a reasonable number of topics and preventing discussions from straying from the topic at hand. 

Conduct Public Votes 

Unless hosting a closed board meeting, you need to make voting results available to the public. This ensures transparency and should build trust with the public.

Make Minutes Public 

In most cases, your board must also make minutes for any meetings covered by open meeting laws available to the public shortly after the meeting concludes. This improves transparency by ensuring all relevant discussions and voting results are available to any interested parties. In most cases, nonprofit board meeting minutes must also be made public. 

Adhering to Open Meeting Laws at the Federal and State Level 

Federal agency meetings must typically be open to the public. Specific details of open meeting laws vary depending on your location. Information can usually be found online. These laws do not always apply to closed or confidential meetings. 

Conducting Remote Open Meetings 

Remote meetings make your board meetings more accessible to the public. There are also several important considerations to make to ensure they comply with open meeting laws. 

Integrate a Virtual Meeting Platform 

Use Zoom, Microsoft Teams, or another video conferencing tool to make your board’s open meetings more accessible. These platforms let the public easily view and participate from home, reducing, or even eliminating, the need to secure large meeting spaces. 

Take full advantage of built-in features like breakout rooms, chat, hand-raising, and accessibility tools to create a more engaging and interactive experience. Prepare in advance to ensure your virtual meetings run smoothly.

Facilitate an Interactive Environment 

Decide ahead of time how your board will manage the public comment period to keep meetings focused and on track. Use chat functions and other interactive tools to streamline Q&A sessions and boost public participation in your virtual meetings.