Meetings of Public Bodies

All public governing bodies are required to hold open meetings, giving the public the chance to be present to observe and participate in meetings. The West Virginia Open Governmental Proceedings Act sets the standards for those meetings.  That Act covers state, county and municipal governing bodies, and most public corporations created by the Legislature to manage projects in the public interest.  Private entities such as profit or non-profit corporations and other business entities are normally not covered by the Act.  See the About West Virginia Open Meetings Law for more information.

Notice of Meetings

Every public agency covered by the Open Governmental Proceedings Act is required to give notice of meetings. However, only state agencies, boards and commissions subject to the Administrative Procedures Act (APA) are required to file meeting notices for publication in the State Register. County and municipal bodies and others not covered by the APA set their own policy about giving notice, but the notice must meet the standards set by the Open Governmental Proceedings Act.  NEW!  You can now file your meeting notices online.  Go to the new Meeting Notices page at www.wvsos.com

To file in the State Register, the notice must be filed in time to be published at least five days before a regular or special meeting occurs. This means a board may not schedule a meeting earlier than the Wednesday following a Friday publication. Here is a sample period.  The deadline for publication applies to all the meeting dates shown in blue.  Remember, if the State Register publication date is earlier than Friday due to a holiday schedule, the deadline and days for meetings would also move forward.  Click here to view "Filing Deadlines and Publication Dates."

Also, there should be an agenda made available to the public at least 3 working days prior to the meeting.  Click here to view a letter from the Ethics Commission's with details for your agenda.

Of course, a board might publish the notice a week or two earlier than the deadline, and the notice will be reprinted each week through the last publication before the deadline.  

Notices for regular meetings give the date, place and time in the notice.  Any business a board wishes to address should be listed on the agenda.

Notices for special meetings must, in addition, give the purposes of the meeting, and matters not on the agenda may not be acted upon.

Emergency meeting notices must be filed before the meeting is held, and are exempt from the State Register publication deadlines, provided there is an "emergency."  

See Meeting Notices for currently posted emergency meeting notices and links to the current State Register for regular and special meeting notices. 

To learn more about boards and commissions, visit the Executive Records section of our site.