Introduction
Adding members to a forum is an important step to get the most out of boardcycle for a number of reasons including:
members of a forum are automatically added as attendees of all meetings of that forum with no further action required
members are treated differently from other meeting attendees in both agendas and shell minutes.
What is a member?
Members are the core group of people who make up a forum and who are invited to all meetings of that forum in their entirety (or in their entirety subject to specific exceptions). This may extend beyond the voting members of the forum to include a small number of other people.
Member roles
Members can be assigned 1 of 5 forum roles:
Chair | The chair a voting member of the forum who leads the forum.
Usually, there is only 1 chair - but it is possible to have multiple chairs in a forum. | Example Most boards of directors have one of their members elected or designated as the chair / chairman / chairwoman / chairperson or similar. |
Deputy Chair | The deputy chair is a voting member of the forum who leads the forum in the absence of the chair.
Usually, there is only 1 deputy chair - but it is possible to have multiple deputy chairs in a forum. | Not all boards have a deputy chair. If your board does not have a deputy chair, this role can be used to designate the 2nd most senior person in the forum after the chair. |
Member | A member is a voting member of the forum who is not a chair. | Example On a board of directors, each director other than the chair(s) is a member. |
Standing Attendee | A standing attendee is a person who is not a voting member of the forum, but who is usually invited by the forum members to attend meetings. | Example Often, Chief Financial Officers and General Counsels are standing attendees. |
Secretary | A person who is not a voting member of the forum but who performs the secretariat functions for the forum (e.g. minute taking). | Example Often, the Company Secretary will be the secretary of a forum. |
Adding members to a forum
Worth knowing: add the person first
To add a specific individual as a member of a forum, they must first have been added as a person to the company the forum is associated with.
To learn how to add people, click here.
To add a member to a forum:
navigate to the company and forum where you want to add the member
click the Members tab
click + Add Member
in the Person field, type a few letters of the name of the person you want to add - you will then see them appear in a dropdown - click their name to select them
click the Role field and select the correct role for that person in this forum
optionally, you can add a Forum title for that person (see further information on Forum titles below)
click Save
Important: Consequences of adding a forum member
When you add a forum member, that person will be added as an "in full" attendee of all meetings of that forum.
When to use forum titles
When adding a person to your company you are required to give that person a title and, by default, that title is used when you add that person as a member of a forum.
However occasionally, a person's 'general' title in your company does not accurately reflect their title in a specific forum. For example:
you may give a member of your board the general title 'Non-Executive Director' - but if they are the chair of a committee, their title in that committee should be 'Chair' (or similar);
equally, your board chair may have the general title 'Chair' (or similar), but in committees they are not the chair of you may prefer to title them 'Committee Member';
you may have members of your company's staff who have specific titles in particular forums (e.g. director, company secretary, etc) which differs from their job title in your company.
These scenarios can be dealt with by giving the relevant person a forum title in the relevant forum. If you give a person a forum title in a forum, the forum title will override their 'general title' in that forum (and in that forum only).