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3 When reviewing the above goals it is clear that they may well conflict with one another. This, of course, makes any direction more difficult. Nevertheless, it appears critically important to recognize the conflict and approach meetings and agenda changes on a systemic basis reducing the negative effects as much as possible. In order to begin this systemic examination we will address current and projected impacts of Council meetings on staff resources. Staff Resources Currently much staff time is consumed directly or indirectly on agendas, meetings, and minutes. It probably v~ uld serve no useful purpose to describe the total time necessary to prepare for a Council meeting including reports, research, etc. It may, however, be useful to describe the system used to establish the agenda and to prepare the minutes. Thursday mornings prior to Council meeting the entire staff (department heads) meets to put the agenda together. This process consumes 45 minutes to 90 minutes of each staff person's time. The secretary spends approximately five hours in preparing the agenda and newsletter for each regular meeting. A short staff meeting is then held the day of the meeting to finalize the agenda. These meetings consume from 15 to 30 minutes. The. day following the meeting a staff meeting is held to prepare the minutes. These meetings generally last from lz to 2 hours. Approximately 10 hours of secretarial time is needed to prepare the dictated minutes. Agenda and Rules of Order Changes The above information is offered to put into perspective the probable effect on staff of various changes which will shortly be addressed. Before proceeding further, however, it is important to understand that Council expectations of the administration are two fold. First, we are expected to respond to Council direction occurring at Council meetings. It is easy to see how the time commitment to this role has expanded greatly. Secondly, we must conduct the everyday business of the City, which also has greatly expanded over the years. These resource limitations should be taken into account as agenda and meeting changes are discussed. Serious every day administration problems could result if a good deal more staff time was shifted to the Council resource role. Regardless of whether the current format is radically changed or not, ways should be explored to more efficiently use staff in the role of resources to the~Council. Perhaps the the goals stated order and agenda Several of these attention of the best place to begin in the exploring ways of achieving earlier is to analyze possible changes to the rules of which do not affect the current scheduling of_meetings. options have already been discussed or brought to the Council.