Meeting Minutes

This section of the guide covers how to generate, edit, and distribute the meeting minutes in Meeting Hub, after a meeting has been finalised. In order to generate the meeting minutes, all the Template Groups must be present.

In order to generate the Meeting Minutes, the meeting status must be 'Meeting Held'. When the Meeting Minutes document is generated using an "Off The Shelf" (OTS) template, it contains a variety of merge fields that are automatically populated based on the information entered into Meeting Hub. For example, attendees and the outcomes of the motions. Some of these fields will vary depending on the meeting type, and which state the Template Group is for.

• Attendees are added to the minutes based on the Attendance Register.
• Pre-Meeting Votes are recorded from those lots that used VoteMax to cast their votes prior to the meeting.
• The 'Quorum' section is populated from the Meeting Overview screen, merging only the 'Quorum Statement' field.
• The motion title, type, number of votes (QLD only), and outcome are automatically merged in the minutes. The resolution body field will also merge and will depend on what option was selected in the motion.

Completing Minutes After The Meeting

For some meetings it may not be possible to run the meeting in Meeting Hub as the meeting occurs; for these meetings if you wish to still merge the meeting minutes it is recommended to follow the below steps so this information can merge onto your minutes and save you time from having to manually edit the minutes generated to word.

1. Load attendees to the Attendance Register.
   
   
   
   
2. Commence the meeting and ensure the correct meeting open date and time is entered.
   
   
   
   
3. Select the Chairperson for the meeting.
4. Confirm a Quorum is present and Proceed.
   
   
   
   
5. For every motion enter the total number of votes using the Vote Tally option and click on Determine Outcome. Ensure the determined outcome matches what was voted on during the meeting. 
6. For any motions that were amended during the meeting, use Manage Agenda and Motions to edit the motion as required.
   
   
   
   
7. For Committee Election meeting add the required nominees and determine outcomes for each position.
8. At the end Close Meeting stage ensure the Meeting Close Date and Time is entered.
   
   
9. In the Meeting Overview screen, click the Meeting Minutes button, then the Generate option.
   
   
   
   
10. The notice will open in Microsoft Word where it can be reviewed and the formatting can be edited. The length of time it takes to open Word and display the document depends on your PC and your network.

Minutes Documents in DocMax

Generating the minutes document in Meeting Hub will automatically save the document in DocMax, and can be viewed in the Recently Added documents.

In the Document Details section of each document, the Title and Description fields will automatically be populated, and a new DocMax Category will also be assigned, called 'MeetingHub Meeting Minutes'.

If previous minutes documents exist in DocMax  with their own existing Category, there are a couple of ways that these can be changed in order to ensure they all fall under one Category.

1. Existing/previous meeting documents can be changed to the new Meeting Hub categories in bulk. This means any future Meeting Hub documents won't need their Category changed each time they are generated and added to DocMax.
2. A profile can be created to change the category of each new Meeting Hub document to the existing meeting category as and when they are generated and saved in DocMax.

Edit Meeting Minutes

1. Click the Meeting Minutes button, then the Edit option. This will open Word with the current document stored in DocMax. 
2. Make any changes and save before closing Word. It will not supersede the current document in DocMax.

1. After making the necessary changes in the Meeting Details screen, click the Meeting Notice button, then the Generate option. This will present a prompt confirming if the existing document should be superseded.
   
   
2. The superseded document can still be viewed in DocMax.

Distribute Meeting Minutes

Once the notice and all accompanying documents have been finalised, the notice can be distributed as a meeting pack. After selecting the Distribute option, the Meeting Hub Document Distribution window will open.

Edit Email Body & Subject

When meeting minutes are being sent through the Distribution screen, more specifically by email, the system will automatically insert the body of the email. The content of the body & subject can be changed by clicking Options > Edit Email Templates.

The Meeting Hub distribution emails observe the user's signature setting in Communication (Options > Signature > Use Personal).

1. In the Distribution screen, click Options > Edit Email Templates.
2. Click the Template Type drop down menu and select 'Meeting Hub Meeting Notice' or 'Meeting Hub Meeting Minutes'.
3. To create a Global Template, click the edit icon (pencil) next to the far right. If a Local Template is being created, search for the specific property using the Search Building Name / Number field, highlight the ubilding and click on the edit icon (Pencil).
4. Enter a subject in the Subject line, and in the Body field, enter the body of the email.
   • In order to enter a paragraph, add <BR> at the end of the sentence like in the screenshot below.
5. Merge fields can be inserted in both the subject and body by clicking the Insert Field button.
   • Building Long Name - Building Long Name field from Info Update.
   • Building Number - Building Number from Building Maintenance.
   • Company Title - Body Corporate Name from Building Maintenance.
   • Meeting Type - The Meeting Type of meeting created; for example Annual General Meeting
   • Report Name - Type of document attached. E.g. Notice or Minutes.
   • Meeting Date Long (Friday 29 October 2021 - obtained from the Meeting Date and Time field)
   • Meeting Date Short (DD/MM/YYYY - obtained from the Meeting Date and Time field)
   • Meeting Location (Obtained from the Meeting Location field)
   • Meeting Location Details (Obtained from the Meeting Location Details field)
   • Meeting Time 12h (Obtained from the Meeting Date and Time field)
   • Meeting Time 24h (Obtained from the Meeting Date and Time field)
   • Meeting Time Zone (Based on the address in the Meeting Location field)
6. Select Save.
7. To copy a Local Template to other properties click on icon 'Copy the email template details to tagged buildings' .  (To delete, click on the red cross). 
8. Tag any properties to receive the local template and click OK. 

Exclude Lots With Zero Entitlements

To exclude zero entitlement lots within Document Distribution please follow the below steps to configure:

1. Search or select Merge Letters, and click File > Configure.
2. Under the Selection Settings header, tick the option Exclude Lots with Zero Entitlements.

Zero entitlement filtering only applies to owner/debtor recipients. Both Contribution and Interest Entitlements need to be set to zero in the Roll for the lot to be excluded. The zero entitlement configuration setting in merge letters affects both merge letters and Meeting Hub documents so a change to the setting will apply to both.

In the Document Distribution screen, under the Options menu, the Exclude Lots with Zero Entitlements setting will be visible to the user and ticked if set in Merge Letters.

Select Merge Letter Cover Letter

Merge letters in Meeting hub originate from Merge Letters in StrataMax; only .doc merge letters can be used. You can refer to our Merge Letters article to learn more about how to create a merge letter.

1. Filter merge letters by either Global or Local.
2. Tag a merge letter cover letter if required.
   
   
3. If more merge fields need adding to the letter, click the Edit Fields button to open the Merge Field Editor screen.
   a. Select the Merge Field Category in the list on the left.
   b. Select the Merge Field.
   c. Click the Right-Arrow button, and it will appear in the Selected Merge Fields list.
   d. When finished adding all required merge fields, click the Save button.
   
   
4. The merge letter (cover letter in this case) can be edited as well. After clicking the Edit Letter button, the document will open in Word where it can be edited, and merge fields can be inserted or removed. Refer to our Merge Letters article for more info.

Merge Letter Attachments

1. By default all attachments are selected to print/send, but they can be removed by un-ticking them (except for the notice itself).
2. The Total Size: is displayed for convenience in order to avoid exceeding any e-mail file size restrictions.
3. By selecting an attachment in the list and clicking either button, the order of how the attachments are displayed can be changed.

Recipients

1. Recipients can be filtered by selecting the different radio buttons.
   • Owners includes all owners.
   • Meeting Committee Members will include those member who were added to the Committee Meeting or VOC.
   • All Committee Members includes all members.
   • When Custom is selected, owners can be omitted by un-ticking the white tick in the green circle.
2. By default all notices are printed, but by ticking the Use contact preferences tick box, Meeting Hub will observe the owner's contact preferences in the Roll menu.
3. Merge correspondence can be ticked to collate the notices for owners who own multiple lots in the building, so that they only receive one notice.
4. Deduplicate Correspondence can be ticked instead of Merge Correspondence, if the ‘Remove Duplication’ option in the Label Printing menu is used to remove duplicates in merge letters
5. Add to DocMax will store the cover letter in DocMax for each lot that it is distributed for; in the references section there will be a link to the other documents. A DocMax Profile can also be applied from the drop-down list.

5. If any notices need to be printed, select your printer, change the properties, printer settings, paper source if necessary, and tick the Save as Default box to keep these printer settings for future use.
   
   
6. The Preview button will display the entire document in your PDF reader, whilst clicking the Print/Email button will either print or email the meeting pack.
   • A confirmation will appear - Click Yes to proceed with printing/sending the meeting pack.
   • If the notice was already printed or emailed, a warning message will appear, confirming whether or not to print/email the notice again.
   • If the meeting status was 'Meeting Held' when distributing the notice, a prompt will appear asking to update the meeting status to 'Minutes Issued'. Note that if you click Yes, then the meeting will move from the 'Recently Held' section of the Meeting Hub main screen to the 'Historical Meetings' screen.
     
     Clicking 'Yes' will move the meeting to the 'Historical Meetings'

Distribution with Bing

Levy Notice Method

1. Search or select Levy Notice/Reports.
   • This screen is also available from the Tools menu in any area where printing from StrataMax is an option.
2. Click the ellipsis button next to the printer.
3. In the Printer Setup window, click Tools > BingMail Settings.
   
   
   
4. In the BingMail Settings window, enter the details provided by Bing Customer Service; Account ID, Portal User, and Portal Password.
5. Tick the Duplex box to configure the BingMail Portal to print multiple page documents on both sides of the paper. This can help reduce printing costs.
6. Tick the Hold For Approval box for documents to remain on the BingMail Portal with the status "On Hold". This allows for an internal review, or approval process prior to issuing Levy Notices to lot owners. Any uploaded documents will be included in the next print run at BingMail if this setting is switched off.
7. Select the required colour setting from the Colour Model drop-down menu.
8. When finished, click Close.
   
   
9. Click OK back in the Printer Setup window, then close the Levy Notice/Reports menu.

Merge Letter Method

1. Search or select Merge Letters.
2. Click the ellipsis button next to the printer.
3. In the Printer Setup window, click Tools > BingMail Settings.
   
   
4. In the BingMail Settings window, enter the details provided by Bing Customer Service; Account ID, Portal User, and Portal Password.
5. Tick the Duplex box to configure the BingMail Portal to print multiple page documents on both sides of the paper. This can help reduce printing costs.
6. Tick the Hold For Approval box for documents to remain on the BingMail Portal with the status "On Hold". This allows for an internal review, or approval process prior to issuing Levy Notices to lot owners. Any uploaded documents will be included in the next print run at BingMail if this setting is switched off.
7. Select the required colour setting from the Colour Model drop-down menu.
8. When finished, click Close.