Meeting Close-Out

Record the outcomes of a council or committee meeting into the briefing book for longitudinal continuity across sessions.

Trigger

User invokes /municipal-governance:meeting-close-out

Purpose

This is an input skill, not an analysis skill. Its job is to capture what happened at a meeting so that future skill runs (meeting-prep, policy-research, etc.) can reference real decisions, votes, and context instead of starting from zero.

The close-out takes 5-10 minutes and creates the institutional memory that makes every subsequent analysis better.

Inputs

• Which meeting (date, type) — or the user just says "tonight's meeting"
• Meeting outcomes (votes, deferrals, key discussion points)
• User can provide: their own notes, a rough summary, or answer guided questions

Workflow

0. Identify the Meeting

Check municipal.local.md for meeting schedule to confirm which meeting this is. If ambiguous, ask:

"Which meeting are we closing out?" — Regular session, committee of the whole, special meeting, etc.

If the user already ran meeting-prep or agenda-synthesis for this meeting, load that session log entry from briefing-book.md to pre-populate the agenda items. This means the user only needs to supply what changed from the briefing — not re-describe the whole agenda.

1. Capture Decisions

Walk through the agenda items (from the briefing if available, or from scratch):

For each action item, ask or confirm:

• Vote result: Passed/failed, vote count, and roll call if the user knows it
• Amendments: Any changes to the item as presented
• Key discussion: 1-2 sentences on what drove the debate (not a transcript — just the substance)

For consent agenda:

• Pulled items: Any items removed for separate discussion (and their outcome)
• If nothing pulled: "Consent approved as presented"

For public hearings:

• Testimony summary: Themes from public comment (support/opposition/concerns raised)
• Action taken: Continued, closed, decision made

2. Capture Deferred/Tabled Items

• What was deferred and why
• Expected return date if stated
• Any direction given to staff

3. Capture Follow-Ups

• Staff assignments with deadlines
• Items coming back to a future meeting
• Information requests from council members

4. Capture Surprises

Ask: "Anything happen that wasn't in the briefing or that you didn't expect?"

This is valuable because it calibrates future briefings — if the plugin consistently misses certain types of developments, that's signal.

5. Council Dynamics (Optional)

If the user volunteers observations about member positions or voting patterns, record them in the Council Dynamics section. Don't push for this — it's sensitive and the user will share it if they want to.

If the user provides roll call votes, note any votes that diverge from previously observed patterns.

6. Update Briefing Book

Write the close-out entry to briefing-book.md:

1. Meeting Record section: Add the full close-out entry (reverse chronological)
2. Active Items section:
   • Update status of existing tracked items based on votes/deferrals
   • Add new items that emerged (new referrals, first readings, staff directives)
   • Remove items that are fully resolved (passed and implemented, or withdrawn)
3. Council Dynamics section: Update if new voting pattern data was provided

Output Format

Display the close-out summary to the user before writing to the briefing book, so they can correct anything:

# Meeting Close-Out
**Meeting**: [Type] — [Date]
**Attendance**: [X of Y members present]

## Decisions

| Item | Action | Vote | Notes |
|------|--------|------|-------|
| [Item title] | Passed / Failed / Deferred / Received | [X-Y] or [Unanimous] | [Key detail] |

## Discussion Highlights
- [Item]: [1-2 sentence summary of substantive debate]

## Deferred Items
- [Item]: Deferred to [date/TBD]. Reason: [brief]. Staff directed to [action].

## Follow-Ups
| What | Who | Due |
|------|-----|-----|
| [Action] | [Staff/Dept] | [Date or timeframe] |

## Surprises / Divergence from Briefing
- [What happened that wasn't anticipated]

---

**Briefing book updated.** [X] active items updated, [Y] new items tracked, [Z] items resolved.

After the user confirms (or corrects), write to briefing-book.md.

Skills Referenced

• parliamentary-procedure — interpreting procedural outcomes (tabled vs. deferred, motion types)
• council-communication — understanding amendment conventions and motion language

Notes

• This skill is conversational, not analytical. Meet the user where they are — if they give a quick "bag ban passed 5-4, everything else was routine," that's enough. Don't interrogate.
• If the user provides detailed notes, capture the detail. If they're brief, capture what they give and move on. Any close-out is better than no close-out.
• Roll call votes are the most valuable data point for the Council Dynamics section — encourage the user to include them when they know them, but don't require it.
• If a prior meeting-prep or agenda-synthesis session log exists for this meeting, reference it to show what the plugin predicted vs. what happened. This builds trust and calibrates future analyses.
• The close-out should take 5-10 minutes max. If it's taking longer, the user is providing too much detail — that's great, but keep the briefing book entries concise. Store the detail in the session log, keep the meeting record tight.

Related Skills

• meeting-prep — the primary consumer of close-out data (next meeting's briefing references prior close-outs)
• agenda-synthesis — lighter-weight consumer (flags items that appeared in prior meetings)
• policy-research — references close-out data when researching topics council has previously considered