Meeting Documents for Public Meetings: Attach Agendas, Packets, and Draft Minutes in Recap
Public meeting video is only half the record. Residents also need the agenda they read before the meeting, the board packet with staff reports, and the official minutes that follow. Until now, those documents usually lived on a separate page on your website while the recording sat in Granicus, YouTube, or a Recap embed. Residents bounced between tabs. Clerks re-uploaded the same PDFs in multiple places.
Recap Innovations now supports meeting documents and draft minutes directly on each meeting recording. Attach an agenda, packet, published minutes, or highlights document, or generate a structured draft minutes document from the transcript. Everything appears alongside the searchable transcript and captions in your Recap embed and showcase collections.
The problem: video and documents live in different places
City councils, school boards, planning commissions, and other public bodies publish a familiar set of materials for every meeting:
- Agenda listing items for discussion and action
- Packet (or board book) with staff reports, resolutions, and backup documents
- Minutes summarizing actions taken and votes recorded
- Highlights or summary documents for residents who want a shorter read
Most agencies already publish these as PDFs on a CMS like Finalsite, CivicPlus, or a Granicus archive page. The meeting video often lives somewhere else entirely. A resident who finds the recording on your meetings page still has to hunt for the packet. A clerk who embeds accessible video through Recap still sends people back to the main site for supporting documents.
That split creates friction for civic engagement, adds duplicate upload work for staff, and makes it harder to present a complete public meeting record in one place.
What meeting documents in Recap solve
Meeting documents let content managers attach supporting files to a Recap meeting recording. Each document is labeled by type and available to viewers from the same embed or showcase page where they watch the video and search the transcript.
Supported document types:
| Type | Typical use |
|---|---|
| Agenda | Meeting agenda PDF posted before or after the session |
| Packet | Board packet, council packet, or staff report bundle |
| Minutes | Official or published minutes PDF |
| Highlights | Summary or highlights document for residents |
| Other | Custom-labeled documents (presentations, exhibits, etc.) |
You can attach one document per type for agenda, packet, minutes, and highlights. The Other type supports multiple labeled documents when you need additional files.
Documents appear as labeled download buttons in the Recap embed player and on showcase collection cards, so residents open the agenda or packet without leaving the meeting page.
Two ways to attach documents: upload or link
Recap supports the workflows public agencies already use. You do not need to move documents off your existing website.
Upload a PDF or Word file
Upload a file directly from the meeting’s Details page in Recap:
- Formats: PDF, DOC, and DOCX
- Size limit: 25 MB per file on starter plans. Enterprise accounts may request higher limits.
- Who can upload: Content managers with access to the workspace
Uploaded files are stored securely and served through signed download links in public embeds.
Link an external URL
If your agenda or packet is already hosted on your agency website, link to it instead of uploading a copy. Paste the URL from Finalsite, Granicus, or any CMS that serves a direct PDF or Word file link. Recap validates that the URL points to a supported document type.
This approach is ideal when:
- Your clerk’s office already publishes packets on the main city or district site
- You want a single source of truth for the official PDF
- You prefer not to duplicate large packet files across systems
No CMS migration or IT project is required. If your web team can paste a link, they can connect existing documents to a Recap meeting.
Where residents and staff see meeting documents
Once attached, meeting documents surface in the places your community already uses to watch meetings.
Embed player
The Recap iframe embed on your meetings page includes a Meeting documents control in the player toolbar. Viewers open a dialog with download links for each visible document. Links open in a new tab so residents can read the packet while keeping the video open.
Showcase collections
For agencies that publish a searchable library of past meetings, showcase cards display compact Agenda, Packet, and Minutes buttons when documents are attached. Residents browsing a semester of school board meetings or a year of council sessions can grab the packet for any session from the same card where they play the video.
File Details page (staff)
Content managers manage documents from the Meeting documents drawer on the file Details page. After transcription completes, open the drawer to upload, link, hide, or remove documents. Hidden documents stay attached for staff but do not appear in public embeds.
AI draft minutes: a clerk-ready starting point
Searchable transcripts help residents and reduce manual typing, but many clerks still need a structured minutes document formatted for their board or council. Recap now includes draft minutes generation for workspaces with AI features enabled.
After transcription completes, a content manager opens the Draft minutes drawer on the file Details page and optionally enters:
- Organization name
- Meeting date
- Clerk name
- Board or council member names
Recap generates a formal draft organized into the sections public bodies expect:
- Attendance (present, absent, ex-officio)
- Procedural items
- Public forum
- Information and discussion items
- Operational items with motions, movers, seconders, and vote outcomes
- Closed session and adjournment
The draft includes a clear disclaimer that it is AI-generated and requires review and approval by the meeting clerk before adoption. It is a starting point for clerk review, not a replacement for the official record.
Review, edit, and export
Clerks and content managers can:
- Review the structured draft in Recap
- Edit the disclaimer and save changes
- Copy plain text for paste into other systems
- Export DOCX for editing in Microsoft Word
- Publish a read-only draft to the public embed (optional)
Draft minutes appear in the embed player alongside meeting documents and the searchable transcript, giving residents who want more detail than a summary but less than the full transcript a structured path through the meeting.
For background on how AI transcription fits clerk workflows more broadly, see our city clerk’s guide to automated meeting transcription.
One complete public meeting record
Meeting documents and draft minutes sit on top of the Recap capabilities agencies already use for searchable council meeting transcripts, captions, and AI summaries. The result is a single meeting page where residents can:
- Watch the recording with closed captions
- Search the full transcript and jump to any moment
- Download the agenda, packet, or published minutes
- Read an AI draft minutes document or executive summary
- Subscribe to alerts when topics they care about appear in new meetings
For school districts, the same workflow applies to board meetings, committee sessions, and public hearings. For cities and counties, it applies to council, commission, and advisory body recordings ingested from Granicus, YouTube, Zoom, or direct upload.
Accessibility: what Recap handles and what stays with you
Recap continues to provide accessible video through captions, searchable transcripts, and optional audio descriptions. Meeting documents are different: Recap does not currently offer PDF remediation for accessibility. Uploaded and linked PDFs are served as-is.
Agencies remain responsible for ensuring agendas, packets, and minutes meet WCAG and Section 508 requirements, including tagged PDFs and readable structure. Public embeds include a note that document accessibility is the responsibility of the meeting host.
This honest split matters for procurement and compliance conversations. Recap makes the video side accessible by default; your clerk’s office or communications team ensures the PDFs you attach are accessible before upload or link.
Who benefits most
City and county clerks reduce duplicate publishing work by linking packets already on the city site, or upload once and expose documents in the same embed as the recording.
School board clerks and district communications staff give parents and community members agenda and packet access next to the board meeting video without maintaining a separate document list.
Residents and journalists find video, transcript, agenda, and packet in one place instead of searching across CMS pages and video archives.
Accessibility coordinators can point to a single embed that combines captioned video with linked official documents, while keeping clear ownership of PDF remediation with the agency.
How to get started
Meeting documents and draft minutes are available now for Recap workspaces processing public meeting recordings.
For meeting documents:
- Open a completed meeting in Recap
- Select Meeting documents from the Details page
- Upload a PDF or Word file, or link an external URL from your CMS
- Confirm documents appear in your embed or showcase
For draft minutes:
- Ensure AI features are enabled for your workspace
- Open Draft minutes on a completed meeting
- Enter optional meeting metadata and generate the draft
- Review, edit, and export DOCX for clerk approval
If your agency is new to Recap for public meetings, start with a 2 week pilot: we transcribe your recent council or board sessions so you can evaluate transcript quality, attach your next agenda and packet, and show your team a complete meeting record before any commitment. Learn more at citytranscripts.com or schedule a demo.