Council votes on phones, resolutions and minutes without retyping
Council mode in MinutesMaster keeps a body’s roster and rules, takes attendance and every vote by name on the councillors’ own phones, numbers the resolutions and drafts the record of each item from the recording. After approval you publish the minutes, resolutions and votes on a page you can also embed in your office’s website.
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What council mode is
A council session leaves the same papers every time: an attendance sheet, the minutes, numbered resolutions, a table of who voted how — and then all of it has to be published. In most offices one person puts this together from notes and a recording, and the vote tables are where mistakes are made most easily.
Council mode is the part of MinutesMaster made for exactly this work. You set up the body once — its members, who chairs it, the majority its rules ask for and how it numbers resolutions. Each session then has its programme, attendance and votes. Councillors vote on their own phones: they scan the session’s QR code and enter a personal five-digit code, with no app and no account. Every vote is counted against the right majority and recorded by name.
The recording of the session does the rest of the typing: MinutesMaster drafts what was said to each item, and the clerk checks it against the audio. The papers are then built from the session’s data, not from free text — so the vote table in the minutes, the number of the resolution and the public register always say the same thing.
- For
- Against
- Abstain
One session, from the invitation to the public page
Five steps. The first is done once for the body; the others repeat with every session.
- 1
Prepare
Set up the body once: the roster, the rules, the numbering of resolutions — and hand every councillor a slip with their voting code. For each session you then only enter the date and the programme and print the invitation and the attendance sheet.
- 2
Vote on phones
The chair starts the session and puts the room’s screen on the projector. Councillors scan the QR code, tap their name and enter their code — which also checks them in. The chair opens one vote at a time; each councillor taps For, Against or Abstain.
- 3
Record from the recording
Record the session as you always do and attach the recording. MinutesMaster drafts what was said to each item and marks whatever it is not sure of with “Check this”, with a link to that place in the recording.
- 4
Approve
The clerk corrects and completes the record; the papers come out as PDF, Word or a web page with your letterhead and lines for signatures. Approving the minutes locks the record.
- 5
Publish
Choose which papers the public sees and publish them. The body’s public page shows the sessions and a searchable register of resolutions, and it can be embedded straight into the office’s website.
Every click is in the guide: How to run a council session with voting on phones.
What council mode does
Everything listed here is in the product today.
Voting on councillors’ own phones
A QR code for the session and a personal five-digit code for each councillor. It runs in the phone’s browser: nothing to install, no account and no e-mail address needed.
Votes by name, counted for you
For, against, abstained or did not vote — for every councillor present. The result is worked out against the majority the vote needs, and nothing is adopted without a quorum.
Secret ballot
In a secret ballot only the totals are kept, and the fact that a councillor has voted — never how. Paper ballots can be added to the totals.
The room’s screen and the chair’s console
The projector shows the item on the table, the quorum, who has already voted and finally the result. The chair opens and closes votes, sees whose phone is connected and can record a raised hand for anyone.
Resolutions numbered your way
Number / year, number / session / year or a pattern of your own, starting from the number you are at. Tasks set by resolutions have a person responsible and a due date, and make the follow-up report for the next session.
A draft of the record from the recording
What was said to each item, the resolutions as they were put and the votes as the chair announced them — written from the transcript and matched to your roster and programme. The clerk checks the draft.
Papers with your letterhead
Invitation, attendance sheet, minutes, resolutions, votes by name and the follow-up of tasks — as PDF, Word or a web page, in Slovak, Czech or English, with your crest and lines for signatures.
A public page with a register of resolutions
Published sessions with their papers, every resolution with the result of its vote, and search by word, number or year. One piece of code embeds it in the office’s website. A short summary in plain words can go with each session.
Approval and a history of changes
Approving the minutes locks the programme, attendance, votes and resolutions; when something has to be corrected, an administrator takes the approval back. Every change to attendance, a vote or a resolution is written in the session’s history.
The same session today and with council mode
Where the hours go after a session — and what changes.
Attendance
Usually todayA paper attendance sheet goes round the table; late arrivals and departures are written in the margin.
With council modeA councillor checks in by signing in on their phone; the chair marks the others. The quorum is on screen all the time, and you can still print the attendance sheet for signatures.
Voting
Usually todayA show of hands; the chair counts, and the vote is repeated when the count is unclear.
With council modeOne tap on the phone. The chair sees who has not voted yet and closes the vote; a councillor without a phone raises a hand and the chair records it.
Votes by name
Usually todayThe clerk notes who voted how for every resolution and types the tables afterwards.
With council modeRecorded as the vote is taken. The same table is in the minutes, in the “Votes by name” paper and on the public page.
Majorities
Usually todaySomeone has to keep in mind which majority this particular vote needs.
With council modeA vote starts with the majority from the body’s rules: under the Czech rules more than half of all members; under the Slovak rules more than half of those present, and three fifths of those present for a generally binding regulation (VZN), set automatically when the subject of the vote names one. You can change it for any vote.
Resolutions
Usually todayNumbered by hand in a separate document; a gap or the same number twice happens easily.
With council modeAn adopted resolution gets the next number in your pattern by itself. All of them are in a register with search and filters.
Minutes
Usually todayWritten from notes and by listening to the recording again, often over several days.
With council modeA draft of what was said to each item comes from the recording; attendance, resolutions and votes are filled in from the session’s data. The clerk checks and corrects.
Publishing
Usually todayPDF files are exported one by one and uploaded to the website.
With council modeYou publish the approved session on the body’s public page and embed that page in the office’s website — or download a package of PDFs and web pages and upload it yourself.
Follow-up of resolutions
Usually todayA list in a separate file, updated before every session.
With council modeEvery task has a person responsible, a due date and a status; overdue tasks are marked, and the follow-up report is one click.
The middle column describes how many smaller offices work, not any particular product. If your office already has a voting system or a system for its resolutions, compare council mode with what you use. What council mode does not do: it does not send materials to councillors, does not broadcast or film the session and does not replace the office’s records system.
Who it is for
For everyone in the chamber — and for the people the council answers to.
Mayors and chairs
You run the session from one screen: the programme, who is present, the vote that is open. The result is on the wall the moment you close the vote.
Clerks and heads of office
No vote tables to retype and no resolution numbers to keep by hand. You check a draft instead of writing from an empty page, and the papers look the same every time.
Councillors
Your own phone, a QR code and a five-digit code. You see that your vote was recorded, and you can change it until the chair closes the vote.
Citizens
One page with what the council adopted and how each councillor voted — with search, the minutes to download and a short summary in plain words.
Committees, commissions and the municipal board
Every body that has members, a programme and resolutions can have its own roster, rules and numbering in the same office account.
Boards and associations outside local government
Outside municipal law you choose the general rules and set the majority yourself — for a board, a committee or a members’ meeting where every member has one vote.
Where the data is
The roster, attendance, votes, resolutions and minutes are stored in MinutesMaster’s database in the Czech Republic; recordings are stored in France. Voting itself uses no artificial intelligence.
When you attach a recording, a speech-to-text provider transcribes it and AI models draft the record — and, if you ask for it, the summary for citizens. We name these providers on the Sub-processors page; some of them work in the United States under standard contractual clauses. Your content is never used to train AI models.
The municipality is the controller of the data and MinutesMaster processes it on its behalf. We send a data-processing agreement under Article 28 of the GDPR on request; the details are in the privacy policy.
Ask for an offer for your office
Write to us with the name of your municipality, the number of councillors and how many sessions you hold a year, and we will send you an offer. You can also create an account and try a session with your own roster.
Frequently asked questions
- Do councillors need an app or an account?
- No. A councillor scans the session’s QR code with their phone, taps their name in the browser and enters the personal five-digit code the office issued. Nothing is installed, and no MinutesMaster account or e-mail address is needed. Only the office staff who prepare and run the session have accounts.
- What if a councillor has no smartphone, or the phone runs out of battery?
- The chair marks them as present in the console and, in every vote, records their raised hand with the buttons next to their name; every vote recorded this way is written in the session’s history. A whole session can also be run without phones and the votes by name entered afterwards.
- Is a secret ballot really secret?
- In a secret ballot the system keeps only the fact that a councillor has voted, and the running totals — not how they voted. Neither the chair, the office nor the room’s screen can see it, and a vote that was sent cannot be changed. Whoever cannot vote on a phone votes on paper, and the chair adds the paper ballots to the totals. Whether your rules of procedure allow a secret ballot in this form is for the council to judge.
- Is it recorded how each councillor voted?
- Yes, in every open vote: for, against, abstained or did not vote, for each councillor present. The same table is in the minutes, in the Votes by name paper and on the public page. If a vote is corrected after the voting was closed, the change is written in the session’s history.
- Does it follow the Slovak Municipalities Act (zákon č. 369/1990 Zb.)?
- The “Slovak municipalities” rules count the way § 12 of the act sets out: the council is quorate when more than half of all councillors are present; a resolution needs more than half of those present and a generally binding regulation three fifths of those present — which is set automatically when the subject of the vote names a VZN. The mayor chairs the session and by default does not vote. You can change the majority for any vote; the tool does not replace your rules of procedure or legal advice.
- And the Czech Municipalities Act (zákon č. 128/2000 Sb.)?
- The “Czech municipalities” rules ask for more than half of all members of the council both for the quorum (§ 92(3)) and for every resolution (§ 87), and the mayor, as a member of the council, votes. The minutes have signature lines for the people you set and for the verifiers, and the papers can be in Czech.
- Where is the data stored?
- The roster, attendance, votes, resolutions and minutes are in a database in the Czech Republic, recordings in France. Speech-to-text and the AI models that draft the record run at the providers listed on the Sub-processors page; some work in the United States under standard contractual clauses. The content is not used to train models. We send a data-processing agreement under Article 28 of the GDPR on request: info@minutesmaster.ai.
- Can we publish the minutes and resolutions on our own website?
- Yes. Every body has a public page with its own address, showing only the sessions you publish yourself after the minutes are approved. You embed it in the office’s website with a code copied from the public page itself, or download the package for the website — the minutes, the resolutions and the votes by name as PDF and as web pages. The papers are published as you approved them; personal data of citizens that should not be public has to be removed before publishing.
- What does it cost?
- Recordings of sessions are processed on the normal MinutesMaster plans and credits. For an offer for your office, write to info@minutesmaster.ai.
- Does artificial intelligence decide anything?
- No. The votes are exactly what the councillors tapped on their phones or what the chair entered. Artificial intelligence only writes the draft of the record from the recording and, on request, the summary for citizens; names, numbers and wordings in the draft can be wrong, which is why the clerk checks it against the recording. The minutes are approved by a person.
Related pages
- Guide: a council session with voting on phonesStep by step: the roster and the codes, the room’s screen, voting on phones, the draft from the recording, approval and publishing — and what to do when something goes wrong.
- Council meeting transcriptionTranscribe council, board and assembly sessions of several hours and get formal minutes with motions, votes and resolutions.
- Municipal council minutes template (CZ)Czech municipal council minutes under § 95 of the Municipalities Act: quorum, approved agenda, votes and resolutions, citizens’ questions.
- Long audio transcriptionTranscribe recordings of up to 8 hours — council sessions, conference days, hearings, all-day workshops — with speaker names and minutes.
- Board meeting minutes templateA formal record for boards and committees: attendance and quorum, motions with vote counts and results, reports received.
- Meeting minutes generatorUpload a recording and get minutes with decisions, action items and owners, ready to export to Word or PDF.
Hold your next session with council mode
Set up your council, print the voting codes and try one vote with colleagues before the real session.
- 3 free credits
- No credit card
- No AI training on your data
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