How do I find a past decision?

What is the Decisions page?

Decisions is your board's running, searchable record of every passed motion — across every meeting, not just the one you're currently looking at, plus every written-consent round decided between meetings. Each row shows the date it was decided, the motion itself, who moved it, the threshold it had to clear, how the vote was taken (roll call, show of hands, voice vote or general consent), and the full Yes/No/Abstain/Recuse breakdown. A voice vote or general consent shows No count instead of numbers, because none was taken.

Every date on this page — the Date column, the written-consent signature window, the copied citation, and the CSV export — is shown in your board's own configured time zone (Settings → Board profile), not your device's or the server's clock, so it always agrees with the same decision's date wherever else it appears (for example, a document's "Adopted by" cell).

An in-meeting decision links back to the meeting it was decided at. A decision made by written consent — outside any meeting — carries a "By written consent" badge instead, and shows the signature window (the dates the round was open) rather than a meeting.

Each row's Copy citation button copies a plain-text citation to your clipboard — the date, the decision, that it passed, and the Yes/No/Abstain/ Recuse breakdown — ready to paste into minutes, an email, or another document without retyping the numbers yourself.

If a decision adopted a governing document (bylaws, a policy, and so on), the row also shows an Adopted: <document> v<n> link straight to that document, and the copied citation includes the same line — so "what did this vote actually adopt?" is answered right there, not just "it passed." That linkage is set from the document's own detail page — see Documents.

How do I export the decision register?

Select Export CSV above the list to download the register as a spreadsheet-ready CSV file — the export always reflects whichever filters are currently active, across every matching page, not just the one page on screen. Each row has the date decided, the decision and its full text, the outcome, the Yes/No/Abstain/Recuse breakdown, the threshold it had to clear, whether it was an in-meeting motion or a written-consent round, the meeting name (or signature window) it was decided at or by, the committee that hosted it, who moved it, the adopted document, if any (the same "<document> v<n>" fact the on-screen Adopted: link shows, so exporting the register as the durable record, for the minute book or for counsel, never silently drops which bylaw or policy version a motion ratified), and, in the last column, the method: how the vote was taken (Roll call, Show of hands, Voice vote, General consent, or Written consent). A row that adopted nothing exports an empty document cell, and a voice vote or general consent exports empty Yes/No/Abstain/Recuse cells rather than zeros. This is the same information the on-screen register already shows, in plain human-readable text, ready for board-book or minutes compilation.

How do I search past decisions?

Type a term into the search box on the Decisions page — it matches against the motion's title and text, including partial words. Then open Filters (it starts collapsed, and reads Filters (2 active) when any are set) to narrow the list with any combination of these filters:

• Decided by — in-meeting motions only, written-consent rounds only, or both.
• Outcome — Carried only (the default: the record of what the board approved), Failed only, or Carried and failed. Motions that are still open, or that were withdrawn before a vote, never appear here — they aren't decisions.
• Committee — decisions taken at a meeting hosted by one committee. (A decision made at a full-board meeting, or by written consent, has no committee.)
• Meeting — every decision taken at one specific meeting.
• Moved by — every motion a particular director moved.
• Decided from / Decided to — a date range, inclusive of both days.

While the default Carried only outcome is in effect, a line above the list reads Showing carried decisions · Show all — select Show all to include failed motions too. On a board with no decisions yet, the filters are hidden altogether.

Select Apply to run the filters (they also apply automatically a moment after you change a control), and Clear filters to return to the whole record. Every filter lives in the page's web address, so a filtered view is something you can bookmark or paste into an email — the person you send it to sees the same list.

Once more decisions match than fit on one page, Previous page/Next page links appear below the list, and your active search and filters carry over as you page through. Searching, filtering and paging all happen on the server, so the register stays fast for a board with years of history behind it — and it all keeps working with JavaScript turned off.

If nothing matches, the page says No matching decisions (as opposed to No decisions yet, which means the board hasn't recorded a result at all yet) and offers a link to clear your filters.

Good governance tip: search decisions before you re-raise a topic at a future meeting — "have we voted on this before?" is a much shorter conversation when the answer is one search away.

What happens to a written-consent decision afterward?

When a written-consent round is opened, the person opening it can flag ratify at the next meeting. If that round passes, BoardTools automatically adds a consent-agenda item to the board's next scheduled meeting (or the very next meeting created, if none is scheduled yet) so the board formally ratifies it — you don't have to remember to add it yourself. That item links back to the written-consent decision, and the decision links forward to the meeting where it was ratified.

How are a meeting's decision and action registers built?

Each meeting's Minutes page builds two registers from what you've recorded. They're recalculated every time the page loads, so they always match the minutes — the minutes PDF prints exactly the same lists.

The decision register lists every decision the meeting took:

• Every passed motion, once, with its Yes/No/Abstain/Recuse breakdown. Motions that failed, were withdrawn, or are still open aren't decisions and don't appear.
• Every decision you typed on an agenda item. If no formal vote backs it, it reads "Recorded by consensus (no formal vote)".
• No double-counting. When an agenda item's decision text describes a passed motion on that same item, the two are one decision: the register shows the motion (and its vote), with your wording underneath as "Minuted as: …". That's true whether the item is linked to the motion (for example, by auto-populate) or simply sits on the same agenda item. BoardTools treats your text as describing the motion when it mentions what the motion is about (say, "budget"), or when it's just an outcome like "Approved." or "Carried unanimously" and there's only one motion on the item.
• Distinct decisions stay distinct. Two motions on one item are two entries. So is a motion plus a separate decision about something else on the same item ("Staff to hold a reserves workshop"): both appear.

The action register lists only what you've marked as an action in a Notes or General notes field: a line that starts with Action: (also ☐ Action: or a Markdown checkbox - [ ] …). One line, one action; an item can have as many as you need. Decisions are never actions, so "Prior minutes approved by consent" never shows up as a to-do. Each action can become a tracked task with an owner and due date — see How do I turn follow-ups into tasks?. Tasks you've already created from the register stay on the Tasks page whatever happens to the line that produced them.

This is the same underlying record as a single meeting's decision register — see Minutes for how decisions get recorded meeting by meeting, and Votes & ballots for how a motion gets to "passed" in the first place.