Notifications

Where do I see my notifications?

The bell icon in the top bar shows your unread count. Select it for a quick look at your most recent notifications without leaving the page you're on — choose any item to jump straight to what it's about, choose Mark all as read right there to clear everything without opening the full page, or choose View all to open the full Notifications page. When you're all caught up, the popover simply says so.

Open Notifications to see them all, newest first — things like packet-ready notices, meeting reminders, and published minutes show up here. Each unread item is clearly marked; choose Mark as read on one, or Mark all as read to clear everything at once.

Opening a notice marks it read for you. Choosing one — from the bell popover or from the Notifications page — takes you to what it's about and clears it from your unread count at the same time, so the bell stops counting things you've already dealt with. Mark as read is still there for the notices you want to clear without opening them.

Read something you actually meant to come back to? Choose Mark as unread — it sits right next to Dismiss on any already-read notice — and it returns to your unread count and list right away, exactly as if it had just arrived. Read/unread works both ways, the same as dismiss/archive does: opening a notice, or choosing Mark as read, is never a one-way door.

Done with a notice for good? Choose Dismiss to archive it — it disappears from the list and the bell right away, and a brief Undo offer lets you bring it straight back if that was a mistake. Archiving never deletes anything: switch to the Archived chip any time to see everything you've dismissed and choose Restore to bring one back into the main list. Archived notices don't count toward your unread badge, and Mark all as read never touches them.

Every notice carries an icon and a short label for its kind — Meeting reminder, Meeting cancelled, Meeting moved, Packet ready, Vote requested, Minutes published, RSVP requested, Task assigned, Task due soon, Survey response requested, Recording uploaded, Added to a committee, New discussion post, Acknowledgment reminder, or Note reply — so you can tell at a glance what each one is about.

Each notice's timestamp — in the bell popover and on the full page alike — renders in your board's own time zone (Settings → Board profile), the same as every other date and time in the app; hover or focus it to see the same instant in UTC.

Finding the notice you want

Notifications are grouped by when they arrived — Today, This week, and Earlier — so recent activity stays at the top.

Above the list are filter chips:

• All / Unread / Archived — show everything active, only what you haven't read yet, or the notices you've dismissed.
• By type — narrow to a single kind (for example, only Vote requested). Each type chip shows how many notices of that kind you have in the current view, so you know before you click whether it's worth opening.

The chips you pick are remembered in the page address, so a filtered view is easy to bookmark or share as a link. Choosing Unread (or a type chip, or both together) actually narrows what's counted and paged, not just what's drawn on the current screen — so "Showing 1–43 of 43" under Unread means exactly 43 unread notices exist, paged correctly across as many pages as it takes, never a page that comes up empty partway through. Choose Clear filters to go back to the full list.

The number in the page header ("You have 43 unread notifications in total") is a different, deliberate thing: your unread count across everything, regardless of which chip or type you currently have selected. It won't match the count in a type-filtered or Archived view below it — that's expected, not a bug — the header is always the whole-inbox total, and the "Showing X–Y of N" line below the chips always describes exactly what you're looking at.

Paging through older notifications

The Notifications page tells you exactly where you stand — a line above the list reads something like "Showing 1–50 of 137 notifications" when nothing is filtered, or "Showing 1–20 of 43 unread notifications" once you've chosen Unread — so the count and the list you're looking at never quietly disagree with each other.

Once you have more notices than fit on one page, Previous page / Next page controls appear below the list. Archived pages the same way as the main list, and switching pages never forgets which chip (All / Unread / Archived, or a type filter) you had selected — the page number, like every other filter, lives in the page address, so a link to page 2 of your unread or archived notices is exactly as shareable as a link to page 1, and you'll never land on a page that turns out empty because a filter thinned it out.

Choosing what you receive

At the bottom of the Notifications page is a Notification preferences section — a simple grid where you decide, for each kind of notice, whether it reaches you in-app, by email, both, or neither:

Every topic in that grid is backed by a notice the system really sends — there are no settings here that switch nothing. In particular, packet-ready notices go out when an administrator finalizes a board packet and chooses Notify the board, and minutes published notices go out the moment minutes are approved.

One notice deliberately has no row in the grid: the Acknowledgment reminder an administrator sends with the Send a reminder button on a governing document's acknowledgment roster (see Documents). It's a direct, targeted ask about a specific outstanding obligation — not a subscription — so it always reaches you in-app; only its accompanying email follows your own email opt-in.

What a recording notice looks like

The moment a meeting recording finishes uploading and is verified playable, everyone invited to that meeting — the sitting board, or the committee for a committee meeting — gets a Recording uploaded notice, except the person who uploaded it. That deliberately includes members who couldn't attend: the recording is how they catch up. The notice links straight to the meeting page, where the recording plays in place; the email version carries a Play the recording button to the same spot. Turn these off (in-app, email, or both) with the Recordings row of the preferences grid.

What happens when I'm added to a committee?

You're told, immediately: an Added to a committee notice in the bell — named for the committee, and saying so plainly when you were made its chair — plus the matching email with a View the committee button. Whoever added you is never notified of their own action, and adding yourself notifies nobody. Removed and later re-added? That's a genuinely new membership, so you're told again. The Committees row of the preferences grid turns these off per channel, like everything else.

Everything is switched on by default, so you never miss anything until you choose to. Tick or untick the In-app and Email boxes for each topic and choose Save preferences. For example, you can keep the in-app vote reminders but turn off vote emails — the two are independent. On a phone the grid stacks into one card per topic, each with a full-width In-app and Email row, so there is nothing to scroll sideways and nothing fiddly to tap.

These preferences are personal and apply only to your account on this board. Each board you belong to has its own set, and no one else — not even an administrator — can change them for you.

Below the grid is one more, separate checkbox: Include a calendar file with meeting invites. It isn't a grid column because it only concerns meetings — unlike everything above, it doesn't decide whether an email arrives at all; it decides whether a meeting invite, reschedule, or cancellation email also carries a calendar file that lands on your own calendar app automatically. Turn it off and you still get the same email with its link back to the meeting; nothing is added to your calendar for you. It's on by default and saves together with the grid. See do meetings land on my own calendar automatically? for the full picture, including what clicking Accept/Decline in your calendar app does and doesn't do today.

What happens when a meeting is scheduled

The moment a meeting is scheduled — for the sitting board, or the committee roster for a committee meeting — every invited member gets an RSVP requested notice: an item in your bell and, unless you've turned the Meetings topic's Email box off, a branded invite email with a View meeting button. This is the notice that tells you a meeting exists at all, so it's sent the moment scheduling happens, not just when the meeting is later moved or cancelled.

Your in-app and email choices for Meetings are consulted separately, the same as everywhere else in the grid: turn the email off and you still see the notice waiting for you in the bell; turn the bell off and you still get the invite email. Re-scheduling the same meeting sends an updated invite email (honoring the same Meetings email preference) but doesn't add a second bell row for it — a reschedule's own Meeting moved notice is what tells you on the bell that something changed. See what the board hears when a meeting is cancelled or moved and do meetings land on my own calendar automatically? for the rest of the calendar-invite lifecycle.

Your weekly digest

Once a week you get a single Your weekly board digest email — a short round-up of what's coming up and what still needs you, so you can catch up without logging in. It's an email only; the digest never adds anything to your bell.

It gathers exactly three things, and only the ones that are genuinely yours:

• Upcoming meetings — meetings scheduled to start in the next seven days. Committee meetings appear only if you're on that committee, and a meeting you've already RSVP'd No to is left out.
• Open votes — motions and written-consent rounds that are still open and that you haven't voted on yet. Once you've cast your ballot, or the consent round's deadline passes, it drops out. Only members who hold a voting seat are asked.
• Tasks due — action items assigned to you that are already overdue or fall due within the next seven days. Tasks you've marked Done or Cancelled never appear, and neither do other people's tasks.

If none of those apply to you that week, no email is sent at all — you'll never get an empty "nothing to report" digest. And you only ever get one digest per week: if the system retries, it won't send you a second copy.

Every date and time in the digest is shown in your board's time zone (Settings → Board profile) — or, for a meeting held in a different zone, that meeting's own zone, named so it's unambiguous. Whether a task counts as "overdue" is judged against your board's calendar day too, not the server's.

The digest follows the same email contact switch as every other message from your board: if an administrator has turned email notifications off for your member record (or your address has bounced and been suppressed), no digest is sent. It isn't one of the topics in the preferences grid above — those govern individual notices as they happen, while the digest is the weekly summary of what's still outstanding.

What a packet-ready or minutes-published notice looks like

Both arrive the same way: an item in your bell and on the Notifications page, and — unless you've turned that topic's Email box off — a branded email with a button straight to the document.

• Packet ready — sent once per finalized packet version, linking to that meeting's Packet page. Finalizing the same version twice never notifies you twice.
• Minutes published — sent when minutes are approved, linking to that meeting's Minutes page. If minutes are reopened for a correction, nothing is sent for the reopening itself; you're notified again only when the corrected minutes are approved.

Your in-app and email choices are consulted separately, so muting the email still leaves the notice waiting for you in the bell.

Meeting cancelled and Meeting moved notices work the same way, and the cancellation additionally carries a calendar cancellation so the meeting comes off your own calendar — see what the board hears when a meeting is cancelled or moved.

What a task-assigned notice looks like

The moment a task lands on you — created with you as the owner, handed to you later, or captured from a meeting's action items — you get a Task assigned notice: an item in your bell and, unless you've turned the Tasks topic's Email box off, a branded email with a button straight to the task. Where the work came from a meeting's minutes, the email carries a second button back to those minutes.

This notice does not need a due date — an undated action item announces itself just the same, which is exactly the case a due-date reminder can never cover. You're never notified about a task you assigned to yourself, the previous owner of a reassigned task isn't told they were taken off it, and several tasks handed to you in one go arrive as a single message naming them rather than one message each.

What a survey-response-requested notice looks like

The moment a survey or board self-assessment is distributed, every member of its audience gets a Survey response requested notice: an item in your bell and, unless you've turned the Surveys topic's Email box off, a branded email — both pointing to the survey's respond page, right in the app. This is separate from the survey's own personal, single-use email link (see Surveys), which is never gated by this preference: it's a direct ask for your answer, not a digest. The notice disappears from the Overview page's Surveys awaiting your response section, and from your Surveys list, the moment you respond, the survey closes, or its deadline passes.

What a task reminder looks like

If a task is assigned to you and carries a due date, you get a Task due soon notice when it comes due and, if it's still open, a second one once it's overdue — both governed by the Tasks topic above. A task with no due date, no assignee, or one that's already marked Done or Cancelled never generates a reminder. Each reminder arrives the same way as any other notice: an item in your bell, and — unless you've turned the Tasks topic's Email box off — a branded email linking straight to the task.

What an acknowledgment reminder looks like

If a governing document (bylaws, policies) is waiting on your acknowledgment, an administrator can send you an Acknowledgment reminder from that document's page — see chasing outstanding acknowledgments. It's a direct ask, not a subscription: unlike every other kind of notice, it doesn't have a row in the preferences grid above, so it always reaches your bell. Its companion email still follows your own email opt-in. Once you acknowledge the document, you're no longer a candidate for another reminder about it.

What a note-reply notice looks like

Left a note on a shared page of a board packet? If someone replies to it, you get a Note reply notice linking straight back to that page of the packet with the thread in view — and so does everyone else who has already replied in that thread, except whoever just posted. A private note (one only you can see) never generates a reply notice, because no one else can see or reply to it. A burst of replies in quick succession collapses into a single notice per person rather than one per reply. This is an in-app notice only — there's no accompanying email — and you can turn it off entirely with the Packet note replies row of the preferences grid above.

Good governance tip: if you're the kind of board member who lives in their inbox rather than logging in daily, keep Email switched on for the topics that matter — it's the difference between catching a schedule change today versus a week from now. If your inbox is already full, trim the topics you don't act on rather than turning everything off.