🎯 The business: you turn recordings of small public meetings into draft minutes for the clerk, correct the captions on posted meeting videos, and make agendas and packets into PDFs a screen reader can use. AI does the first pass and you check every line. The clerk edits and signs, and the board approves. Small towns, school boards and water and fire districts face federal web-accessibility deadlines in 2027 and 2028, and most have nobody spare to do this work.
At a glance
| Money to start | ≈ $440 to $2,150 |
| Time to the first paying client | 4 to 12 weeks; public bodies buy slowly |
| Hours a week | 8 to 15 part time; about 20 to 25 with eight clients |
| Skills that matter most | Careful listening, plain writing, knowing how motions and votes work, accessible PDFs |
| What it can pay | About $3,800 a month before tax with eight clients (worked below) |
Is this for you?
It suits a detail person who likes local government: a former town or school office worker, a court reporter, a paralegal, or a student in journalism, public administration or political science. You need patience for three-hour meetings about culverts and the habit of checking a name twice.
It is a poor fit if you want fast sales. Towns buy on a budget cycle and a purchase limit, and the first yes can take a season. It also suits nobody who is careless: minutes are the legal record of what a board decided, and a wrong vote in the minutes is a real problem.
Who pays, and what
Town and village clerks, school board secretaries, special districts (water, sewer, fire, library, parks), small county commissions and housing authorities. The pain is the same everywhere. The clerk sits through an evening meeting, then loses most of a day writing minutes. The posted video has automatic captions that mangle every name. The agenda packet is a scanned PDF that a blind resident cannot read.
The deadline is what makes them buy now. The Justice Department’s 2024 rule under Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act requires state and local government websites and apps, including the documents and videos they post, to meet the WCAG 2.1 Level AA standard. An interim final rule in April 2026 moved the compliance dates to April 26, 2027 for governments serving 50,000 people or more, and April 26, 2028 for smaller governments and special districts. The rule has limited exceptions, such as clearly archived content and some older documents. A lawsuit by disability advocates asks the court to restore the earlier dates, and the general duty to be accessible already applies.
The platforms are real competition. CivicPlus, Granicus and Diligent sell meeting software with AI drafting tools, and general transcription apps are cheap. Many tiny districts cannot fit a platform contract into their budget, though, and they want the work done, not another login. A per-meeting service that fits under the clerk’s purchasing limit is your opening. As an estimate, minutes plus caption cleanup sell for about $100 to $300 a meeting.
What it takes to start
| LLC and city or county license | $150 to $500 |
| One paid AI account on a business-grade plan (Claude Pro is $20 a month) | About $240 a year |
| Transcription tool with speaker labels (many have free tiers; check prices) | $0 to $200 first year |
| PDF editor with accessibility tools, for example Adobe Acrobat Pro (check the current price); the PAC checker and NVDA screen reader are free | $0 to $360 a year |
| General liability and errors and omissions insurance (an estimate; towns ask for a certificate) | $0 to $700 first payment |
| Simple website, domain, business email | $50 to $150 |
| All-in | ≈ $440 to $2,150 |
Start to finish: the steps
1. Learn how minutes work in your state. Your state’s open meetings law sets what minutes must contain and who approves them; the attorney general’s office or the state municipal league usually publishes a plain guide. Read a year of approved minutes from three nearby towns. Most small bodies keep action minutes: who attended, each motion, who made and seconded it, and the vote. They are not transcripts.
2. Learn accessible documents properly. A WCAG 2.1 AA PDF has real tags, a correct reading order, headings, alt text for images, marked table headers and a set language. Practice on twenty old agendas with the free PAC checker, then listen to each one with the free NVDA screen reader. Do not sell "AI overlay" fixes: in 2025 the FTC ordered the overlay vendor accessiBe to pay $1 million over claims its AI could make any site compliant.
3. Make the business legal. Register, get the local license, open a business bank account, and get insurance before you pitch, because towns ask vendors for a W-9 and a certificate of insurance. See Choosing a legal structure.
4. Set your data rules. Open-session recordings are usually public. Closed or executive sessions are not. Never process closed-session audio unless the clerk asks in writing and your contract covers it. Use an AI plan whose terms say your inputs are not used for training, and ask whether the town has its own AI-use policy; many now do. More in Contracts, client data and AI rules.
5. Build a sample from a public meeting. Take a posted meeting video from a town you do not plan to pitch first. Produce draft minutes in that town’s format, a corrected caption file and one remediated agenda. Compare your draft with the minutes the board approved. This becomes your portfolio, and it shows you where the AI goes wrong.
6. Offer a three-meeting pilot at a fixed price. Small, low-risk and under any purchase limit. Ask for the clerk’s template, a list of how to spell every member’s, staff member’s and street’s name, and the date the board needs the draft.
7. Agree the workflow in writing. When the recording arrives, how fast you turn it around (three business days is a good promise), how the clerk sends changes, and what happens to recordings and drafts afterwards. The clerk edits and signs, and the board approves. You never post anything as final minutes yourself.
8. Add captions and documents. Once a pilot runs smoothly, offer caption correction for posted videos (names, numbers and motions are what automatic captions get wrong) and remediation of agendas and packets before they go online.
9. Get into next year’s budget. Many towns set budgets months before the fiscal year starts. Ask the clerk when that happens and send a one-page annual quote in time, so you become a line item instead of a favor.
10. Grow by neighbor. Clerks in one county know each other. Add translated notices only with a fluent human reviewer, and keep turnaround promises before you add clients.
Pricing
| Draft minutes, meeting up to 2 hours | $100 to $200 |
| Each extra hour of meeting | $40 to $60 |
| Caption correction, per hour of video | $40 to $90 |
| PDF remediation, simple agenda pages | $5 to $15 a page |
| Monthly package: two meetings, captions, agendas | $350 to $600 |
These are example prices built on the research estimate of $100 to $300 a meeting. Complex packets with tables, maps and forms cost more per page; quote them after you look. Ask the clerk what their purchase limit is before you quote. A price that fits under it can be approved in a week; one that does not may need a board vote.
The math
Take eight clients a year in, each with two meetings a month: 16 meetings at an average of $175 is $2,800. Add 150 agenda and packet pages at $8, which is $1,200, for $4,000 a month. Costs are about $20 for AI, $50 for transcription and PDF software, $70 set aside for insurance and $60 for mileage and marketing, $200 in all. That leaves about $3,800 a month before tax. The time is about 4 hours per meeting (64 hours) plus about 25 hours of PDF work, roughly 89 hours a month or about 21 a week.
The first months are slower: expect one or two pilots while clerks decide. Set aside a quarter to a third of profit for income and self-employment tax. See Small business taxes.
Getting customers
Start where someone already knows you: the clerk of your own town, a school board where a relative works, a water or fire district whose manager you have met. Clerks are careful buyers. A warm introduction and a clean sample matter more than a polished pitch.
A plan for the first ten: list 60 public bodies within an hour’s drive (towns, villages, school boards, special districts). Send 60 short emails with a one-page sample attached, call the 20 that open it or reply, and ask for a 10-minute slot at one regional clerks’ meeting. Offer every interested clerk the three-meeting pilot. As an example, expect 4 to 6 pilots and 2 to 4 ongoing clients in the first three months.
Hello Ms. Ortiz, I prepare draft minutes and accessible agendas for small public bodies in Lake County. You send me the recording; within three business days you get a draft in your own format, with every motion and vote checked against the audio, ready for you to edit and sign. I also fix the captions on posted videos and make agenda PDFs that screen readers can read, which the federal accessibility rule will require of districts your size by April 2028. I have attached a sample from a public meeting. Would a three-meeting pilot at a fixed $450 be useful? Sam Lee, 555-0142
Channels, best to worst for clerks:
1. Your state’s municipal clerks’ association. Conferences, regional meetings and newsletters are where clerks compare vendors.
2. The state municipal league or school boards association. Many keep vendor lists and run small-town workshops.
3. Referral partners. Town attorneys, IT providers and website vendors for towns; the website vendors need accessible documents and rarely make them.
4. County-level networks. A county clerk or regional council of governments can introduce you to every district in the county.
5. LinkedIn. Useful for finding district managers by name; slow on its own.
6. Google Business Profile. Worth setting up, but clerks rarely search for vendors this way.
7. Marketplaces and paid ads. Last. Public bodies seldom hire on Upwork or Fiverr, and ads reach the wrong people.
Turn the first clients into proof carefully. Many public bodies cannot endorse a vendor, so ask instead whether the clerk will take a reference call, and track two numbers you can share without names: days from meeting to draft, and corrections needed per draft. When a clerk is happy, ask one question: "Who in the county is drowning the way you were?" More ideas in the launch and marketing playbook.
Running it week to week
Keep a calendar of every client’s meetings and expected recordings. Draft within your promised turnaround, and before sending, listen again to every motion, second and vote. Keep each client’s name list and template current, and log what the clerk changed in your drafts so the next one needs fewer changes. Check posted videos for caption errors the day they go up. Invoice monthly, under the agreed purchase limit, and keep the W-9 and insurance certificate current.
Rules to check
No license is needed to draft minutes. The rules that matter are the public body’s. Open meetings laws differ by state on what minutes must contain, how fast they must be available and who approves them; the clerk is the author of record and the board’s approval makes them official. Your transcripts and drafts may themselves count as public records, so ask the clerk or the town attorney how long to keep them and whether to hand them over or delete them, and put the answer in the contract. Closed-session material is confidential. Under the ADA Title II rule, never promise that your work makes a website "compliant" or protects a town from lawsuits; say what you did and test it with a screen reader. Many towns have rules on vendor use of AI and on where data may be stored. Translated notices need a fluent human check. Public contracts may require a W-9, insurance and sometimes a short vendor registration.
What goes wrong
The AI gives a motion to the wrong member because two voices sound alike; keep the name list, and check every motion and vote against the audio yourself. A draft includes an offhand remark that should never be in the record; action minutes record decisions, not chatter. A clerk feels you are replacing them; present yourself as their assistant, because that is the job. Budgets stall a pilot for months; fit under the purchase limit and get into next year’s budget. A PDF "passes" the checker but reads nonsense in a screen reader; listen to it. And bad meeting audio makes everything slower; suggest a better microphone setup early.
Questions people ask
Can AI write meeting minutes for a town board?
AI can produce a useful first draft from a recording. A person still has to check every motion and vote, the clerk edits and signs, and the board approves the minutes. That approval is what makes them official.
What has to be in public meeting minutes?
It depends on your state’s open meetings law. Most require at least the date, time and place, the members present, each motion and the vote. Check your state attorney general’s or municipal league’s guide.
What is the ADA Title II website deadline for small towns?
Under the April 2026 interim final rule, April 26, 2028 for governments serving fewer than 50,000 people and for special districts, and April 26, 2027 for those serving 50,000 or more. A lawsuit seeks the earlier dates, so check ADA.gov for the current status.
How much does it cost to have meeting minutes written?
As an estimate, $100 to $300 a meeting for draft minutes, with captions and accessible documents priced separately. Long meetings and complex packets cost more.
Can a college student do this part time?
Yes. Recordings can be worked on around classes, and journalism and public administration students do it well. International students on F-1 visas generally cannot freelance for outside clients without work authorization; ask your international student office first. More in For students.
Free help
ADA.gov publishes the Title II web rule and plain-language guidance. WebAIM and the W3C’s Web Accessibility Initiative have free tutorials on accessible PDFs and captions. Your state municipal league and clerks’ association often run free or low-cost training. APEX Accelerators (formerly PTACs) help small firms sell to government, and SCORE and your Small Business Development Center help with pricing and contracts at no cost. See also The path to the first client.
ADA Title II dates, the April 2026 interim final rule and tool prices were checked in November 2026. Re-check the Title II dates on ADA.gov before each pitch, since a court case could change them, and read your own state’s open meetings law.