Sometimes the most critical processes can be the most manual, time-consuming and frustrating. This was the case for the team at Noosa Shire Council and their Council Meeting process.

 

Before implementing Resolve Meeting Management, the council faced numerous challenges when creating, managing, and executing their council meetings using Word documents. These challenges included manual document management, time-consuming formatting tasks, and difficulty ensuring clear communication with the public. However, with the adoption of Resolve, Noosa Shire Council is now experiencing significant improvements in efficiency, document clarity, and overall meeting management.

 

We spoke to Executive Assistant to CEO Alinda Van Der Harst to discover more about the implementation of Resolve.

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“W​ith the adoption of Resolve, Noosa Shire Council

is now experiencing significant improvements in

efficiency, document clarity, and overall

meeting management."

 

Time-consuming, Inefficient and Frustrating – The Case for a Centralised Meeting Management Solution

Before adopting Resolve, Noosa Shire relied on manual processes to manage council meetings. These processes involved using Word documents to compile agendas, minutes, and other meeting-related materials. The lack of a centralised system resulted in time-consuming tasks, such as copying and pasting reports, reformatting documents, and compressing files. These inefficiencies consumed valuable time and increased the potential for errors.

 

“The preparation for meetings would sometimes take days,” said Alinda. “Along with the manual processes involved, we had to compress our files before uploading them, significantly impacting document clarity. Images, PDFs and plans would become pixelated and difficult to read when uploaded for public consumption – it just wasn’t working for us.”

 

“Our workload has been reduced by approximately 50% since implementing Resolve in April.”

When searching for a meeting management solution, Noosa Shire evaluated various options. However, Resolve stood out due to its user-friendly interface and intuitive design, making it accessible for council members and staff. The flexibility of the system, coupled with the support provided by Redman Solutions, who tailored the solution to meet the unique needs of different meetings, further solidified the decision to choose Resolve.

 

Alinda explained the importance of working with a partner who understood council’s requirements. “Resolve stood out to us in terms of its usability for our council. The interface is easy to use, and we worked closely with the Redman Solutions team to develop it per meeting type. It was important for us to ensure our templates were set up correctly from the beginning and that the formatting was accurate.”

 

Since implementing Resolve, Noosa Shire Council has witnessed several notable benefits that have positively impacted their agility, efficiency, communication, and community experience.

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The benefits of Resolve have also reached

beyond the internal stakeholders and have

resulted in greater engagement, satisfaction

and overall experience with the broader community.

 

Resolve has significantly reduced the workload for meeting preparation, allowing one person to handle the tasks that previously required a larger team. It is estimated that the workload has been reduced by approximately 50% since implementing Resolve in April.

 

The ability to quickly access and edit documents on the go has also meant that staff no longer need to be in the office to make important changes. Alinda provided an example of how this was recently experienced. “Recently, I discovered an important update needed to be made to an agenda item. It was the weekend, and I was travelling, but I was able to grab my iPad and update the document in minutes. Previously, I had to be in the office to download, export, edit and reformat the document. Troubleshooting on the fly has been great, and this type of agility was previously unattainable.”

 

The benefits of Resolve have also reached beyond the internal stakeholders and have resulted in greater engagement, satisfaction and overall experience with the broader community.

 

“The public can now easily access meeting reports with attachments, eliminating the need to scroll through lengthy documents. This has garnered positive feedback from the public and improved their overall experience,” said Alinda. “Additionally, the introduction of bookmarked videos and automated notifications for agenda publications has facilitated smoother communication with stakeholders. Members no longer need to request agenda releases, leading to greater engagement and satisfaction.”

 

“It was important that staff knew how the system could work for them.”

The end-user experience should always be at the forefront when implementing meeting management technology, which was definitely the case for Noosa Shire Council. For those involved, it was essential to make the onboarding process smooth, encourage adoption and ensure all key users and councillors were utilising the solution to its full potential.

 

Alinda explains how she managed the implementation in partnership with Redman Solutions.

 

“For our training sessions, we had excellent attendance from our Report Writers, and for those who didn’t attend, I gave them express training sessions so they knew the basics. Most were very receptive to the change, and we assisted this by creating cheat sheets that were easily available online – staff needed to know how the system could work for them.”

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"For our training sessions, we had excellent

attendance from our Report Writers, and for

those who didn’t attend, I gave them express

training sessions so they knew the basics."

 

Councillor adoption has also been a success, with the Councillor Portal achieving a high adoption rate and the majority actively using the system. The council has also begun encouraging councillors to use the Resolve Voting feature, and are working towards providing laptops at council chambers for seamless access.

 

Alinda’s Top Two Tips and Advice for the Successful Implementation of Resolve

 

Invest the time before you begin. 

Invest time setting up your templates properly to ensure the reports appear as desired in different scenarios. I also recommend prioritising formatting and spending time defining how your documents should look. This investment will pay off when using the system for real meetings. 

 

Perform trials and testing to cover all aspects. 

Conduct trial runs and practice sessions with the system before going live. User Acceptance Testing of configuration and process requires an investment of time and energy from your team. This will help familiarise the team with the system and its functionalities and streamline the transition.

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