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Virtual meetings – rules and etiquette

General principles of Council Meetings and Committees

(Extracted from the Chichester City Council Standing Orders)

The PDF of this page can be downloaded here: Chichester City Council virtual meetings – rules and etiquette – April 2022

LINK – Chichester City Council Code of Conduct – February 2021

  • Members of the public are permitted to attend all Council and Committee meetings with the exception of Agenda items specifically highlighted as confidential due to the matters being discussed – e.g. Personnel or confidential business matters. These items are clearly stated on the Agenda.
  • Members of the public are permitted to make representations, answer questions and give evidence in regard to Agenda items. The time available for this is subject to the Chairman’s discretion.
  • Each member of the public is permitted to speak once only and for no more than three minutes.
  • A question asked by the public shall not require a response or a debate.
  • The Chairman may direct that a response to a question from the public be referred to the Town Clerk or a Councillor for an oral response, or a written response in the case of the Town Clerk.
  • A member of the public should raise their hands when requesting to speak and wait for a response from the Chairman.
  • Comments and questions from the public should be addressed to the Chairman.
  • Only one person is permitted to speak at a time. The Chairman shall direct the order of speaking.
  • ONLY matters that are included in the meeting Agenda may be discussed at that meeting.

Additional principles applied to virtual meetings

  • Meeting links and passwords will not be published openly – those interested in attending should contact the City Council for more information.
  • Meeting links and passwords should NOT be distributed by anyone other than City Council Officers.
  • All attendees are subject to the terms outlined in this document and Chichester City Council’s Standing Orders.
  • Those attending will be initially placed in a waiting room. The City Council host will then admit them to the meeting in order of arrival.
  • Late attendees will only be admitted if the business being conducted at the time is in public session.
  • The City Council will record all Meetings – recordings will be held in accordance with the City Council Data Protection and Privacy policy.
  • The following Zoom features will be disabled:
    1. Screen sharing – only the host will be permitted to screen share for the purpose of in meeting presentations
    2. Whiteboard
    3. Annotations
    4. File transfer
    5. One-to-one private text chat
    6. Personalising attendee backgrounds.
  • All microphones will be muted and only enabled by the Chairman when a Councillor or member of the public wishes to speak to an Agenda item.
  • Attendees are asked to be courteous at all times.
  • Attendees are asked to be mindful of what is happening in their surroundings to prevent unnecessary noise or background activity from detracting from the meeting.
  • Attendees wishing to speak should raise their hand until the Chairman unmutes your microphone and asks you to speak.
  • Attendees creating inappropriate disruption may be removed from the meeting at the discretion of the Chairman. Once removed, re-entry to the meeting will not be permitted.
  • In exceptional circumstances, disruptive users may be reported to Zoom and/or the appropriate authorities for further investigation and/or action.
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