Board Portal for Presidents
In not-for-profits and associations, the president chairs the meetings, sets the board's direction, and is often the public face of the organisation. You keep discussion on track, hold committee members accountable, and sign off on the minutes. Our Cat Herder gives you the tools to run tighter meetings and keep people accountable between them.
Run meetings that stay on track
Volunteer board members have day jobs. When your meeting runs an hour over because one agenda item swallowed the rest, people stop turning up prepared. Our Cat Herder helps you stick to the plan.
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Meeting agenda alignment planner
Map your board calendar across the year. If an agenda is too full, drag items to a future meeting rather than cutting them. Particularly useful for associations that meet bi-monthly or quarterly and need to spread business across fewer sittings.
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Agenda templates with time allocations
Create a standard structure for each meeting type your organisation runs, whether that's board meetings, AGMs, or subcommittee meetings. Each item gets a time allocation, so when a new meeting is created, the running order and timing are already set.
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Colour-coded meeting timer
A live timer runs against each agenda item while the meeting is in progress. It changes colour as time runs out: green, then orange, then red. Handy when you need a polite reason to move discussion along without singling anyone out.
Minutes sign-off and compliance
As president, you're responsible for signing off on meeting minutes. Our Cat Herder's minutes sign-off workflow handles that process and keeps a full audit trail.
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President sign-off workflow
The portal notifies you when minutes are ready. Review them online, approve with one click, and the document locks. No printing, no scanning, no emailing signed PDFs back to the secretary weeks later.
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Unlock/re-lock audit trail
Made a mistake? Minutes can be unlocked for correction, then re-locked. Every change is logged with a timestamp. Useful when an auditor or the ACNC asks to see your records.
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Attendance reporting
Pull attendance reports across any date range. See who's been present, absent, or left early. Many association constitutions require a minimum attendance threshold, and these reports give you the numbers without combing through individual minutes.
Board packs ready before the meeting
Half the battle is getting board members to actually read the papers before they arrive. Our Cat Herder puts everything in one place so there's no excuse for turning up unprepared.
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Papers attached to agenda items
Each paper sits alongside the agenda item it relates to. The treasurer's report is right next to the finance item, the CEO's update is next to the operational item. Board members open the board pack and everything is where they'd expect to find it.
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One-click consolidated PDF
One click produces a single PDF with every paper, in agenda order, with a clickable table of contents. Members who prefer to print can print it. Members who prefer a screen can scroll or jump to sections. Either way, everyone has the same document.
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Presenters assigned to agenda items
Assign presenters to specific agenda items in the agenda builder. The treasurer knows they're presenting the finance report, the CEO knows they have the operational update. You don't need to email a separate run sheet before the meeting.
Action accountability between meetings
Volunteer board members are busy. Things agreed at the table get forgotten by the time everyone's back at their day jobs. Our Cat Herder's action register tracks who promised what and keeps it on the agenda until it's done.
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Outstanding actions carry forward automatically
Incomplete actions roll onto the next meeting's agenda under Matters Arising. They stay there until marked done. When your board only meets every two months, this stops things from falling off the radar between sittings.
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Personal dashboards for every board member
Every board member gets a personal dashboard showing their open actions and due dates. They can check what they owe without waiting for the secretary to send a reminder. That means fewer awkward "did you get to that?" emails from you.
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Custom filtered action reports to the agenda
Need to see just the overdue actions before the next meeting? Filter by status, assignee, or date range and attach the report to an agenda item. The board reviews exactly what's outstanding without wading through the full register.
“We looked at a few systems for our organisation but found OCH to be the most suitable fit for what we need. We liked it because it is purpose-built and doesn’t try to be everything for everyone. It does exactly what it’s supposed to, and it does it simply.”
Everything else a president needs
Decisions, discussions, compliance, and onboarding
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- Circular resolutions and flying minutes
- Need a board decision before the next meeting? Send a circular resolution with customisable vote options and a deadline. The system chases non-voters for you, and the result appears on the next agenda automatically.
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- Secure board communication
- Board discussion threads inside the portal instead of scattered email chains. Set up open groups for general topics and private ones for sensitive matters like CEO performance or member complaints. Searchable later when someone asks "didn't we discuss that?"
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- Governance document repository
- Store your constitution, rules of association, policies, and strategic plans in one place with folder-level permissions. When a board member needs to check the rules on a quorum or a conflict of interest, they find it themselves.
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- Board member onboarding
- NFP boards turn over regularly. When a new member joins, grant them access to past meetings so they can read the minutes and catch up. They can acknowledge key policies through the decisions feature before their first meeting.
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- Multi-committee management
- Run the main board, finance committee, and any other subcommittees from one portal. Each group has its own meetings and access controls, but you can see all outstanding actions in a single register.
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- Security and Australian data hosting
- All data is hosted on AWS in Sydney with Melbourne failover. Penetration tested annually. Your organisation owns its data and can export it at any time. We don't train AI models on your board papers.
Discussion groups
Attendance reporting
Governance document repository
Australian-built for Australian boards
Why Australian presidents choose Our Cat Herder
- Your data stays in Australia. Hosted on AWS in Sydney with Melbourne failover. No offshore data transfers.
- Understands Australian NFP governance. Built around the Corporations Act, ACNC governance standards, and Associations Incorporation Act requirements that apply to most NFP and association boards.
- Self-service setup. Create a portal in under five minutes. 45 days of full access, no credit card, no sales call required.
- Priced for volunteer boards. No per-user fees that punish you for having a large committee structure. Unlimited meetings, unlimited subcommittees.
- Same support trial or paid. We don't gate support behind a paid plan. Ask questions during the trial and you'll get the same response as a paying customer.
Ready to run better board meetings? Start your free 45-day trial.
Full access to all features. No credit card required. Set up in under 5 minutes.
Frequently asked questions
- What does a board president need from a board portal?
- At a minimum: the agenda and papers before the meeting, a way to track time during the meeting, a sign-off process for minutes, and a system that follows up on actions between meetings. Our Cat Herder handles all four. The meeting timer keeps you on schedule, the sign-off workflow replaces printing and scanning, and the action register carries incomplete items forward to the next agenda automatically.
- How does a board portal help the president run better meetings?
- Two features make the biggest difference. First, agenda templates let you pre-assign a time limit to each item, so you walk in with a plan. Second, the colour-coded timer runs during the meeting and goes from green to orange to red as each item's time runs out. Between meetings, the agenda alignment planner lets you spread business across future sittings so no single agenda gets overloaded.
- Does the president need to sign off on meeting minutes?
- If you chaired the meeting, yes. Section 251A of the Corporations Act requires minutes to be signed by the person who chaired the meeting or by the chair of the next one. In most NFPs and associations, that's the president. Our Cat Herder notifies you when minutes are ready, lets you review and approve them online, and locks the document. If something needs correcting after sign-off, the minutes can be unlocked, edited, and re-locked with a full audit trail.
- Is Our Cat Herder suitable for NFP presidents?
- It's where most of our customers come from. The majority are NFPs, incorporated associations, and registered charities with volunteer boards. Pricing reflects that. For ACNC-registered charities, the auditable records of decisions and actions support Governance Standard 2 (accountability) and Governance Standard 5 (duties of responsible persons).
- Can the president see which board members have read the board pack?
- The portal doesn't track reading per page. What it does is put the consolidated board pack and all papers in one place that every member can access. There's no ambiguity about whether papers were distributed, because they're sitting in the portal next to the agenda item.
Resources for presidents
Guides and templates for running a better board, free to download.
Guide
Effective Board Packs: The Complete Guide
How to build board packs that give committee members what they need without burying them in paper.
Template
Free Consent Agenda Template
A ready-to-use template with guidance notes, a what-goes-where table, and a chair's script. Word format.
Template
Free Action Register Template
Track every action item with columns for assignee, due date, status, and notes. Word format, ready to use.
Article
How to Run a Better Board Meeting
Practical advice on keeping meetings on track, managing discussion, and making sure decisions actually get made.