What we can and cannot see about a decision

This page is for anybody who wants to complain about a decision, or ask
how one was made. It is written to be useful whether or not you trust
us.

What is on the record

For every governing-body decision:

1. Who called the meeting, and when notice was given to each person, on which channel.
2. Who was entitled to attend, who attended, and who was recused.
3. The exact words of the motion, fixed before voting opened.
4. How many voted yes, no and abstained, and whether the meeting was quorate.
5. The resolution, sealed, with a reference to the minutes.

What we keep private

How an individual voted, unless the governing instrument requires a
roll call to be published. Declared personal interests. The content of a
conflict review.

Those stay private because a board that cannot speak candidly is a board
that decides badly, and because a register of people's private financial
affairs should not be readable by anyone who can open a screen.

How to complain about a decision

Write to the Board Secretary. Say which decision, and why.

A challenge does not rewrite anything. The votes stay exactly as cast,
and the outcome is recomputed under the same rule that was frozen at the
time. If the meeting turns out to have been invalid, that is recorded as
a new fact and the resolutions that came out of it are affected — they
are not deleted, because deleting them would remove the evidence of what
went wrong.

What we will not claim

That our governance is sound. That our controls are effective. That we
are compliant.

We will tell you what was recorded, when, under which rules, and what we
did not look at. Anything stronger than that would be a claim we cannot
back up.