GEORGE NEWS - Eden District Municipality (Eden DM) piloted its first "paperless" agendas and minutes for all committee meetings on 10 May.

This additional step to go green has been one of the 2016/17 - 2021/22 council proposals since their term in office started.

The Corporate Services Department at Eden DM has been hard at work strategising and designing and now rolled out a promising concept - a unique paperless model.

According to the executive manager, Corporate Services, Trix Holtzhausen: "This truly digitised working environment will resolve logistical issues (time driving, delivering and printing agendas and minutes), lower our carbon footprint and ensure that a seamless digital system is implemented."

Delivery of printed agendas cost municipalities a huge amount of money.

Eden DM Agendas and minutes have always been distributed from George to 35 councillors who reside in a wide geographic area (23 331km²).

Distance, therefore, resulted in employees being required to deliver agendas over weekends and late at night. Councillors are not often at home due to their ongoing community-based projects, which resulted in many instances where delivery receipts for agendas could not be signed. Those responsible for delivering agendas were left with no option but to ask councillors' neighbours to keep agendas with them until their return.

Eden meetings are now paperless.

All agendas and minutes will be sent to councillors via a digital system that tracks the delivery of emails and the download of a document. 

The current Sharepoint system (also known as Collaborator), has also been enhanced and will ensure that councillors have access to older agendas, council items and even resolutions about specific topics.

During a meeting with the Corporate Services Committee members, the Eden DM Speaker, Councillor Mark Willemse shared a vote of appreciation and gratitude to employees who worked tirelessly to make the lives of councillors easier.

"We appreciate your effort, the system that you have created and the paperless route which will make us prudent and fiscally aware. We aim to make this a 'best practice' model for other municipalities in the Western Cape and South Africa."

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