How do I run a meeting live?

How do I run a meeting from start to finish?

Open a scheduled meeting and choose Run meeting. This is the one screen a chair needs for the whole thing: your live quorum status stays visible at all times, and you step through the agenda item by item (the arrow keys move forward and back, unless you're typing into a field) with each item's motions — and their live tally — right there on the stage.

When you're ready to convene, choose Start meeting in the top bar. That records the time the meeting actually began, and the bar switches to a clock showing how long the meeting has been running (against its planned length, if it has a fixed end time). Because the start time is recorded on the meeting itself rather than in your browser, the clock is the same for everyone running the meeting and it survives a reload — open Run mode twenty minutes in and it reads twenty minutes, not zero. It's recorded once, so it can't be reset part-way through by someone else opening Run mode.

Starting the meeting also tells the board: everyone the meeting is for (except you, and anyone who answered No to the RSVP) gets a Meeting started notice in the bell and by email — with a Join the call button when the meeting has a video link. See what happens when the chair starts a meeting.

You can browse Run mode without starting the meeting — until you start it, the bar simply reads Not started yet. Only members who can manage the meeting see the Start meeting button, so a director opening the cockpit early can't set the board's official start time by accident.

That instant doesn't stay inside Run mode: the meeting's Details tab shows Called to order at … once you've started it, and the downloaded minutes PDF prints the same instant on its cover, beside the scheduled time — both in the meeting's own time zone. See Can I download the minutes as a PDF?

Recording a motion as passed still requires both the vote's threshold and quorum to be met — see Votes & ballots for exactly how that's decided.

Motions not linked to the current agenda item appear below the stage under Other motions as compact rows — title, status, and a one-line tally — so they never crowd out what's live on stage. Select Show roll-call roster on any of them to expand its full ballot, same as on the Motions tab.

When the business is finished, you close the meeting out from this same screen — see How do I adjourn the meeting?.

What if the agenda isn't built yet?

Run mode still opens, and it tells you what to do next rather than leaving you stranded. Instead of the item-by-item stage you'll see This meeting has no agenda yet, with:

• Build the agenda — a link straight to the meeting's Agenda tab, where you add items, time-boxes, presenters and papers. Come back to Run mode afterwards and the walkthrough is there. (The agenda list on the left offers the same link.)
• Quick motion and Open a motion — so a meeting that convenes before anyone typed up an agenda can still put a motion, take the vote, and have it on the record. A motion opened this way is a general motion: it isn't tied to any agenda item, and it appears under Other motions below the stage once it's open.

You can build the agenda mid-meeting and keep going; nothing here has to be done in advance.

Who's presenting this item, and where's the paper?

Both are on the stage, under the item's title.

Presenter. If someone was named as the presenter when the agenda was built, the item reads Presenter: name, so you always know who to hand over to without checking the agenda. An item with no presenter simply doesn't show the line.

Papers for this item. Every library document attached to the item is listed by title under Papers for this item:

• Read opens the document in a reader beside Run mode (a side panel on a laptop or desktop, a full-screen sheet on a phone — the same one the board packet uses, below). Scroll the whole document, jump pages with Previous / Next (or ←/→, Page Up/Page Down, Home/End), and zoom in — handy when a director asks which page a figure is on. Close the reader and you are back on the same agenda item, exactly where you were: you never lose your place in the walkthrough.
• Download saves the file instead. It is the only option for a file type no browser can display in place — a Word document or a spreadsheet, say — and it is always offered alongside Read for a PDF.
• While your focus is in the reader, ← and → page the document rather than moving the agenda on underneath you. Click back into the cockpit (or close the reader) and they walk the agenda again — with the side panel open on a laptop, you can do both without closing it.

An item with nothing attached shows no papers list at all. Attach documents to an item from the meeting's Agenda tab — see scheduling and agendas.

The whole board packet. Below the agenda stage, Board packet opens the current compiled pack — cover, table of contents, every item in agenda order — with Download packet beside it. It is there whether or not the item you are on has its own attachments, so "which page of the finance report?" is answerable without leaving the meeting.

• On a laptop or desktop the packet opens in a side panel on the right, and the cockpit stays usable beside it — keep walking the agenda, recording votes and taking minutes while the packet is open. Drag the panel's left edge (or focus it and use ←/→) to make it wider or narrower; BoardTools remembers the width on that device.
• On a phone it opens as a full-screen sheet; Close takes you back to the same agenda item.
• When the item you're on has papers in the packet, the reader opens at the first page of those papers, and a Go to item p. N button in its header jumps back there after you've scrolled away. Move to another item and the button follows you.
• The reader's own Full screen and zoom controls work here too (see zoom).

Run mode shows the packet for reading only, with no highlight or note controls to mis-tap while you present — to add or read notes, open it from the meeting's Packet tab instead (see packet annotations). If no packet has been compiled for this meeting yet, the card isn't shown; see the board packet for how to generate one.

Can I run a meeting from my phone?

Yes — Run mode is built to be chaired one-handed. On a narrow screen the layout rearranges itself so the screen is mostly the meeting, not chrome:

• The current item is the first thing you see. The agenda list moves below the stage instead of above it, so you land on the item you're on — its motions, its Minutes fields — without scrolling past the whole agenda. Use Previous / Next in the bar pinned to the bottom to walk the agenda; the list is still there below it if you want to jump straight to a later item.
• Advancing an item brings you back to the top of the stage, so each item starts where you'd expect rather than mid-scroll.
• The bottom bar stays clear of your phone's home indicator, and the top bar compresses to two rows — the meeting title and Exit on one; the elapsed clock (how long the meeting has been running, since you started it), the live quorum badge, Take attendance, and the help link on the other.

Everything you can do on a laptop you can do here; nothing is hidden on a small screen.

How do I mark attendance without leaving Run mode?

Look for the Take attendance button next to the live quorum badge in the cockpit header. Select it (the badge itself also opens the same panel) to slide out a roster where you mark each member present, remote, or absent — the badge, and whether quorum is met, update the moment you make a change, so you never have to leave Run mode or open the separate Attendance & quorum page. Whatever you record here is the same record that page shows, and vice versa.

The roster panel's header also shows the full quorum picture — the board's quorum rule, how the threshold was derived, and a progress meter — so you don't need to scroll past a second copy of it to keep marking members.

Only members who can manage attendance see the Take attendance button; for everyone else the badge stays a read-only quorum indicator with no button next to it. The panel is fully keyboard-operable — it traps focus while open, closes on Escape, and returns focus to whichever control you opened it from.

How do I see unfinished business from earlier meetings?

Below the agenda stage — and on a meeting's Details and Minutes pages too — look for Outstanding actions. On a board meeting, it lists the board's still-open action items that came from an earlier meeting (or were never tied to a meeting at all), so when you reach "matters arising" you don't have to leave the cockpit and go filter the Tasks page from memory. This meeting's own new actions aren't in this list — those show up in the minutes' action register once you record them, right where they belong.

On a committee meeting, the panel is scoped to that committee alone — the line under the heading names it (for example, "Showing outstanding actions scoped to Finance Committee"), so you're never looking at another committee's carry-forward work by mistake. If the committee has nothing outstanding, the panel says so instead of sitting blank.

Each row shows who owns it, its due date and whether it's overdue or due soon, and — when it came from a meeting — a link back to that meeting. Select Mark done to close it out on the spot; View jumps to it on the Tasks page. If you don't have permission to manage tasks, the list is still fully visible — the Mark done control simply won't do anything for you.

The list is capped to the soonest-due items, overdue ones first; select View all in Tasks to see everything — from a committee meeting, that link carries the same committee filter the panel is scoped to.

How do I capture a motion quickly during a live meeting?

Choose Quick motion on the current agenda item for a fast, one-tap flow:

1. Pick a saved preset (like "Approve minutes as circulated" or "Adjourn"), or type the motion from scratch.
2. Tap the mover.
3. Tap the seconder.
4. Save it — or choose Record vote now to jump straight into the roll-call for the motion you just opened.

Good governance tip: set up quick-motion presets in Settings for the handful of motions your board makes at nearly every meeting. It keeps the chair's hands off the keyboard and the meeting moving.

The same two controls — Quick motion and Open a motion — are on the stage of a meeting with no agenda yet, where they capture a general motion with no agenda item behind it.

How do I handle motions that directors make from their own devices?

Directors can move and second motions from their own phones or laptops (see Making a motion). As chair, you'll see a Motion queue at the top of the cockpit. It lists every waiting motion, oldest first, with who moved it, when, and whether it has been seconded. For each one you can:

• State the question. This puts the motion before the board. You can only state one motion at a time.
• Rule out of order. You'll need to give a reason, and it's recorded with the motion.
• Withdraw it.
• Record a second for… a present member who isn't on a device.

Motions that are withdrawn or ruled out of order stay on the meeting's Motions tab with their label, so the record is complete.

How do I call the vote and close it?

The motion on the floor always shows one main button for its next step:

1. State the question — the motion is now before the board and directors see it as Under debate.
2. Call the vote — first choose how the board will vote: voice vote, general consent, show of hands or roll call. It starts on your board's default. For a roll call, every director's phone or laptop switches to a Vote now card with Yes, No and Abstain.
3. Record the result. For a voice vote, tap Ayes have it or Noes have it. For general consent, tap No objection: adopted or Objection raised. For a show of hands, enter the counts and tap Record the count. For a roll call, tap Close voting. See How votes are taken.

A voice vote or general consent needs no individual votes at all. It's one tap for whoever is running the meeting, including the secretary.

During a roll call, the top of the queue shows a live tally ("Yes 4 · No 1 · Abstain 1 · Not yet voted 2"), how many have voted out of how many can ("6 of 8 have voted"), the quorum badge, and the names of everyone who hasn't voted yet. For a director voting by voice or on paper, use Record a vote for…: pick the member, then their choice. It's recorded as you acting on their behalf.

If anyone hasn't voted when you choose Close voting, BoardTools asks first ("2 members haven't voted. Close anyway?"). Closing checks the threshold and quorum again, records Carried or Failed, and every device shows the result as a message, for example "Motion carried 5–2 (1 abstention)".

The minutes write themselves. When you close the vote, withdraw a motion or rule it out of order, BoardTools adds the outcome to the minutes for that agenda item, or to the general notes if the motion has no agenda item. For example: "Moved by Priya Shah, seconded by Tom Lee. Carried 5–2 (1 abstention) by roll call." Failed and withdrawn motions go in too. It's written once: closing again or retrying never adds a second copy. If the minutes have already been approved, nothing is changed and you'll see Minutes are approved. Add this outcome by reopening them.

Does everyone's screen update on its own?

Yes. While the meeting is running, Run mode checks for changes every few seconds on every device. A new motion, a second, the vote opening, each ballot and the result all appear without anyone reloading. To save battery and data, a tab you're not looking at stops checking and catches up as soon as you return to it. Nothing refreshes while you're typing or have a dialog open, so the minutes you're writing are never overwritten.

Joining a live meeting

Once the chair has started the meeting, its page shows Live now: join the meeting, and your Home page's Your next meeting card shows Join the meeting. Directors see Join live meeting at the top of the meeting page. All of these open Run mode.

If you don't run the meeting, Run mode opens in follow mode. You'll see the current agenda item and its papers, the motion on the floor and your Vote now card. The chair's controls aren't shown. See Voting from your phone.

If your board follows Robert's Rules and you want a refresher on the order things happen in — amendments, motions like "table" or "call the question" that jump the queue, and so on — see Robert's Rules, the short version.

How do I adjourn the meeting?

At the bottom of the cockpit, under Adjourn the meeting, choose Adjourn meeting. You'll be asked to confirm; once you do, the meeting is marked Completed and the moment is written to the audit log. You never have to leave Run mode — and so never lose your place in the walkthrough — to close a meeting out.

Adjourning is not a delete. The meeting, its agenda, its motions and its minutes all stay exactly where they are; only the status changes. If business turns out to be unfinished, reopen the meeting from its Details page and it goes back to Scheduled.

After adjourning, the panel offers Go to minutes — the natural next step, where you tidy the notes and decisions you captured live, record any actions, and circulate them for approval. See Minutes.

Two things to know:

• Only members who can manage the meeting see this control at all. For everyone else in Run mode there's simply no adjourn panel — the same rule as the Start meeting button.
• A meeting that's already completed can't be adjourned twice. If it has already been closed out — by you, from the meeting's own page, or by another chair — the panel reads Meeting adjourned and just offers the link to the minutes.

The wrap-up prompt above it is the moment to add the recording, while the file is still to hand.

Can I bring in notes captured outside BoardTools?

Yes. If you used Zoom, Teams, or an AI notetaker to capture a summary, open the meeting's Minutes page and choose Import summary to paste or upload it and assign each passage to the right agenda item — see importing a summary into minutes. It's a paste-and-assign flow; nothing is generated for you.

How do I take minutes while the meeting is happening?

Each agenda item on the stage has a Minutes panel — select it to expand a Notes field and a Decision field for that item. Type straight into them as the discussion happens; there's no save button, because your changes save automatically a moment after you stop typing (you'll see a brief "Saving…" then "Saved"). Moving to another item saves anything still in progress, so nothing is lost as you walk the agenda.

Each field has the same formatting toolbar as the Minutes page — bold, italic, a heading, bulleted and numbered lists, and links — plus the usual shortcuts (Ctrl+B / ⌘B for bold, Ctrl+I / ⌘I for italic, - at the start of a line for a list). See Formatting your minutes. The arrow keys inside a field or its toolbar move the cursor or between the toolbar's buttons — they never step the agenda.

These are the very same notes and decisions you'd edit on the meeting's Minutes page — one record, two places to write it. Whatever you capture live in Run mode is already there when you open the minutes to review, circulate, or approve them, and vice versa.

Notes that don't belong to any agenda item

Quorum reached at 10:05. A guest introduced. A late start. None of that belongs to a particular item, so it has its own General notes card just below the agenda stage — a single box for the sitting as a whole. Type into it and it saves automatically on the same short pause as the per-item fields; you stay exactly where you are in the walkthrough while it saves.

It's the very same General notes you'd write on the Minutes page — one row, two places to write it — so anything already there (including the general block of an imported or AI-drafted summary) is shown in the cockpit ready to add to, and nothing you type here has to be re-entered later.

Who can write them: drafting minutes is an Admin (Secretary) and Staff liaison capability — a chair approves minutes rather than drafting them, and directors, treasurers, and observers don't draft them at all (see the roles reference). Everyone else in Run mode still sees the Minutes panel and can follow the notes and decision as they are captured live; the panel simply shows them as text rather than as fields to type into.

Once minutes are approved, the record is locked: the cockpit shows each item's notes and decision — and the general notes — read-only for everyone, with a link to the full minutes record. To make a correction you reopen the minutes from the Minutes page first.

Good governance tip: capture the decision in the moment it's made — the exact wording a motion carried with — while it's fresh. Tidying the prose later is easy; reconstructing what the board actually resolved from memory is not.