While digital meetings are now part of everyday business in many companies due to the Corona pandemic, digital meetings in politics, for example of city and municipal councils, are still the exception.
In view of high infection rates, this poses problems for more and more municipalities. While Munich had to cancel several city council meetings at the end of 2021 because of corona cases, the city of Tegernsee is taking a hybrid approach.
Hybrid council meetings are becoming more popular
Since 2022, Tegernsee City Council and committee meetings have been held hybrid, allowing councillors to attend from their home offices. In the meantime, the town council has already held two committee meetings and one plenary meeting in the new digital format. Mayor Johannes Hagn of the CSU draws a positive conclusion: “Thanks to the hybrid council meetings, all councillors can participate in the meetings, either as usual in the meeting room or directly from home.”
Initially, there were critical voices and numerous questions about Mayor Hagn’s digitisation plans. Among other things, about how the proceedings of the meetings could be transferred to a hybrid or digital format. “It was particularly important to us that a hybrid meeting runs just like a classic meeting in the town hall. All councillors should have their say equally and in an orderly sequence, so that the discussion can take place as if everyone were there,” says Hagn.
Stream1 creates individual concept for the city council
Together with Stream1 from Munich, an individual concept was therefore developed for the town of Tegernsee. On site, the meeting room is equipped with several microphones that record the speeches in the room. Two cameras transmit the speakers or the overall picture of all councillors during votes with a show of hands. A monitor with loudspeakers shows the councillors from the home office who have been connected to the system. The system used is Cisco’s WebEx, which is also well established for political conferences.
Stream1 managing director Martin Prankl has already broadcast citizens’ meetings for various municipalities such as Gmund, Feldkirchen, Holzkirchen or Hohenbrunn. He himself sits on a local council – in Aying. Because of a quarantine, he himself missed local council meetings in 2021: “That annoyed me a lot, because technically, a hybrid council meeting is no great witchcraft. Most of the time it only fails because of the reservations of the councillors,” reports Prankl. As late as December 2021, the CSU faction in the Munich City Council blocked a corresponding motion. It was not until mid-January 2022 that the decision was made to hold hybrid meetings in the state capital.
In Tegernsee, despite the successful digitalisation, Mayor Hagn is looking forward to the time after Corona: “Even if the digital meetings have proven themselves, we naturally hope to be able to hold the city council meetings completely face-to-face again in the city hall – perhaps in a larger meeting room – as soon as possible.”
We are also happy to support your town or parish council in holding digital or hybrid council meetings. We would be happy to advise you comprehensively: 0049 89 41 453 10
