During the month of May, Pleasant Prairie's Village Board began receiving paperless agenda packets for their bimonthly meetings. Agenda packets provide background information and supporting documentation for each item listed on the meeting's agenda. The information included in the packets, helps board members become more informed about a matter before taking action on it.

Previously, a single paper agenda packet for a Village Board meeting could range from a handful of copies to one hundred or more. Now, with paperless agenda packets, board members receive a single PDF file. Board members open the file on a computer or other electronic device to learn more about the agenda items prior to attending a meeting.

Computers that were formerly used in police cars will be placed on the dais for the Board to use during meetings. The PDF of the agenda packet is then loaded onto each computer via a flash drive. This way, board members can refer to the related information while they are discussing a given item on the meeting's agenda.

"Overall, the move to paperless packets has been both cost effective and time effective," explained Village Administrator Mike Pollocoff "The shift to paperless packets will end up saving a lot of paper and ink, quite a bit of time, and it will improve the workflow for the creation of the agenda packets."

The Village is currently working on a cost effective solution to have the PDF agenda packets placed onto the Village website in an attempt to make the meeting process even more convenient for residents. Plans are for other Village meeting packets to be handled in the same manner in the future.