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Officer Resources

General Resources for Running a Meeting

Use the links below to navigate through some different types of meeting pointers available.

 

Tips for Conducting a Community Council Meeting

Consensus Decision Making

Meeting Resources & Facilitation Tips

Acting as a Listener in a Discussion

Robert's Rules of Order

Community Council Specific

Submitting New Bylaws
  1. Pass by-law change through general membership. 
  2. Email full updated draft by-laws with change to the below organizations. Note: The draft document should reflect the changes, but they do not have to be marked up.
    1. Clerk’s Office:   
    2. FCC Office: 
  3. The following steps will be taken by the Muni
    1. The Clerk’s Office will send the document to the Municipal Ombudsman for review.
    2. The Ombudsman will review the document for conformity with Municipal Code, Chapter 2.40 – Community Councils.
    3. After the review, the Ombudsman will advise the Clerk’s Office and the Council of their determination and recommendation.
    4. If the document is determined to be conforming and the recommendation is acceptance, the Clerk’s Office will submit the by-laws to the Assembly for acceptance. They will go through the Assembly process and be finalized when accepted by the Assembly.
    5. If the Ombudsman determines that the bylaws are nonconforming, the Ombudsman will inform the Council and the Clerk’s Office regarding the nonconforming elements of the document.
  2. When possible, CC so that your Council website and internal files has all draft and accepted versions of the updated by-laws.
  3. By-Laws are not official until accepted by the Assembly.
  4. The Clerk’s Office and the FCC keep records of Community Council by-laws.

 

Click here to see this information as a PDF.

For Community Councils that do hybrid or fully remote meetings, keeping unwanted entities from hijacking the meeting can be difficult. Please follow the recommendations below and report all “zoom bombings” to FCC staff.

 

If your Council has repeated “zoom bombings”, there are additional techniques that can be utilized. Reach out to staff for more information.

Every Community Council has a unique way to handle their resolutions. Nevertheless, there are some key details that should be included in every resolution. Often a good place to start in formatting a resolution is referencing a previous resolution from your Community Council.

 

 

About Resolutions

Resolutions are the formal document of a Community Councils decision. They should be approved by the body, according to the Council’s bylaws.

 

 

Formatting Resolutions

Title

Example

Resolutions should be named for easy reference and organization. Generally, they are named Community Council Name Resolution YEAR-##.

 

This is important so that if your Council is considering multiple versions of the same resolution, everyone understands which resolution you are referring to in discussion.

 

After that can come a brief one sentence description of the topic in question, along with the date the resolution is set to be adopted.

Awesome Community Council would name their third resolution of 2035

 

Awesome Community Council Resolution 2035-03

Resolution in support of more parks in Anchorage, adopted May, 13, 2035.

 

 

 

Body

Example

The resolution should be written in formal language. Each statement should start with “WHEREAS,” and follow with a statement.

 

Usually, statements start out with general ideas and work toward more specific ones that reference the decision made by the Community Council.

 

WHEREAS should be limited to 4-6 statements to ensure your resolution is concise and impactful. You can also include additional comments as an attachment and reference them in the resolution.

 

WHEREAS, the Awesome Community Council is responsible for engaging neighbors in civic engagement, as outlined in Anchorage Municipal Code 2.40.

 

WHEREAS, there are no parks within Awesome Community Council boundaries.

 

WHEREAS, residents of Awesome Community Council have testified to the body on how they must leave the neighborhood in order to enjoy parks.

 

WHEREAS, the Anchorage Parks Department has identified an available parcel of land to become a park within Awesome Community Council.

Wrap up the heart of the resolution in the last statement (or two) by using “NOW THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED”.

 

You can have more than one wrap up statement, however, it is not recommended to have too many.

 

NOW THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED, that Awesome Community Council supports the Anchorage Parks Department and Assembly to turn the parcel of land into a community park.

 

 

Ending

Example

All resolutions should be ended with a statement of approval or disapproval, the amount of people who voted for or against the resolutions, and a space for the Council Chair’s signature.

 

This Resolution was approved by the Awesome Community Council on May 13, 2035 by a vote of FOR: 62, AGAINST: 0, ABSTAIN: 0.

 

___________________

Chair Signature

 

Resolution Template

After Approval

Even if resolutions are not passed, they should still be created, signed, and shared on the Council website and with local officials.

 

Resolutions generally should be shared with the representatives or local/state departments they are intended at impacting. This can be done by emailing them a copy directly.

 

Signed copies should also be CC’ed to  for upload on your Council’s website.

 

Resolutions for incorporation into public record should be emailed to  and cc’ed your Council’s Assembly members. The Clerk’s office will work with members and ask if they want to sponsor an AIM to get the resolution on the agenda. Only Assembly Members and the Mayor can add items to the Assembly agenda, so all resolutions for the public record must have a sponsor.

 

Click here to see this information in PDF.

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