The yearly meeting schedule in Connecticut: what a board files by January 31
Short answer
Every Connecticut town board files the schedule of its regular meetings for the coming year with the town clerk by January 31. The chair or secretary files it. No regular meeting may be held sooner than 30 days after the schedule is filed. The schedule does not replace the agenda that each regular meeting still needs.(Conn. Gen. Stat. § 1-225(b))
Where this fits in your meeting cycle: Clarivis is software that helps a board follow these steps: it counts the deadline for each meeting's agenda or notice, shows when each regular meeting's minutes are due and drafts the minutes for your board to correct and approve; it does not file or post anything for you.
See how Clarivis helpsQuestions on this page
What is the yearly meeting schedule?
It is the schedule of a board's regular meetings for the coming year. In practice it gives the date, time and place of each; the law says only "the schedule of regular meetings" (see below). A regular meeting is one the board holds on a set schedule, as opposed to a special meeting, which is called separately and may take up only the business in its notice.
Statute text
“The chairperson or secretary of any such public agency of any political subdivision of the state shall file, not later than January thirty-first of each year, with the clerk of such subdivision the schedule of regular meetings of such public agency for the ensuing year”
The duty falls on every board of a town or city, including a committee that a board or office created:
Statute text
“including any committee of, or created by, any such office, subdivision, agency, department, institution, bureau, board, commission, authority or official”
Who files it, and where?
The chair or secretary of the board files it with the town clerk. This guide covers boards of a town or city. State agencies file with the Secretary of the State instead, and the chief executive officer of a multitown district or agency files with the clerk of each member town (§ 1-225(b)); ask your town counsel which applies if your body is not a town board.
What does the 30-day wait mean?
Statute text
“and no such meeting of any such public agency shall be held sooner than thirty days after such schedule has been filed”
A regular meeting is not held earlier than that. The safe course is to file well before January 31, so the new year's first meetings are not caught by the wait. The law does not say how the wait applies to regular meetings in January, before the schedule is filed (see below).
Does it replace the agenda or notice?
No. The schedule says when the board will meet in general. Each regular meeting still needs its own agenda, filed at least 24 hours ahead. See the meeting notice and agenda guide.
What if the schedule changes during the year?
The sections quoted here do not say how to change a filed schedule. The safe course is to treat a meeting that is not on the filed schedule as a special meeting, with the special-meeting notice and its own business listed. See the notice guide.
Checklist
By January 31
- The chair or secretary files the year's schedule of regular meetings with the town clerk.
- Safe course: file early enough that no regular meeting falls within 30 days after filing.
Each regular meeting
- The agenda is still filed on time; the schedule does not replace it.
What the law does not settle
Questions to take to your town counsel; this guide does not answer them.
- What "the ensuing year" covers (the calendar year of filing, or the twelve months after it), and so whether the 30-day wait reaches regular meetings in January.
- How the 30 days are counted.
- How a change to a filed schedule is made, and whether a meeting not on the schedule is a special meeting.
- How a committee created during the year files its first schedule.
- What the schedule must list besides the meetings themselves, since the quoted sentence says only "the schedule of regular meetings".
How Clarivis helps
Clarivis does not prepare or file the yearly schedule; your board files it with the town clerk.
- Keeps each committee's regular schedule. A Committee Admin sets how often the committee meets, on which day and at what time, once, in Settings.
- Lists your next two meetings on its own from that schedule.
- Names the duty on each regular meeting. The meeting's Compliance step lists the yearly schedule among the duties Clarivis does not check.
Related guides
- Connecticut meeting agendas and notices: the yearly schedule, and what to file before each meetingThe yearly schedule, the regular agenda, the special notice, the 24-hour count
- Connecticut meeting minutes and votes: what they must include and when they are dueMinutes within 7 days, each member's vote within 48 hours
- Executive session in Connecticut: when a board can meet in private, and what followsThe five purposes, the two-thirds vote, who attends, the minutes
- What counts as a meeting in Connecticut: quorum, email and chance encountersQuorum, email, and what the law leaves out
- Online and phone meetings in Connecticut: notice, public access and recordingOnline meetings: notice, public access, votes and recording
This guide for other states
Sources
- Conn. Gen. Stat. § 1-225, Meetings of government agencies to be public: www.cga.ct.gov/current/pub/chap_014.htm