--- id: CON-CMT-MTG-003 name: Decision feature: FEAT-CMT-MTG-03 product_area: committees module: meetings revision: 1 status: draft product_intent: proposed implementation_evidence: observed source_sha: services-committees: 36129c24daeaadcdb339218c38cdeaff9861359d react-console: baf6dae382d6f41dce976c7f848667ccc37e076f definition: A formal act of a committee, a motion moved in a meeting or put to an e-mail vote, with the rules it is judged by, its frozen voters, the votes or tally recorded and its result, kept as a permanent numbered record. owned_by: MOD-CMT-MTG synonyms: - Motion - Resolution - Vote not_to_be_confused_with: - The minutes of a meeting - An election run in Surveys & Voting facets: - name: Kind meaning: Motion, resolution, consent item, approval, appointment, removal, charter or other; the kind decides what the decision does if it carries and which threshold judges it. used_for: Choosing the right threshold and consequence. - name: Method meaning: Voice, show of hands, roll call, unanimous consent or paper ballot in a meeting; recorded or secret e-mail vote outside one. used_for: Deciding whether individual votes or a tally are recorded and whether a meeting is needed. - name: Decision number meaning: The committee’s sequence for the year, such as 2026-14, taken when the decision opens. used_for: Citing a decision in minutes and correspondence. - name: Rule document and threshold meaning: The committee’s bylaw rules on quorum, thresholds, abstentions, recusals, chair votes, proxies, e-mail votes and minutes approval, frozen when the decision opens. used_for: Judging the result exactly as the bylaws say. - name: Voters meaning: The committee’s voting roster frozen when the decision opens, with who was present at a meeting. used_for: Fixing who could vote so later roster changes never rewrite the result. - name: Vote and tally meaning: One recorded position per voter for roll calls and recorded e-mail votes; counts, objections or the chair’s declaration for other methods. used_for: The evidence the result is computed from. - name: Consequence meaning: 'What a carried decision does: appointments made or ended, minutes approved, a committee chartered or dissolved.' used_for: Making the vote take effect without retyping. - name: Amendment and rescission meaning: A later decision naming a carried one, which supersedes it when it carries. used_for: Changing or undoing a decision while keeping the original on record. - name: Confidentiality meaning: Whether the decision was taken in executive session and is visible only to those who manage decisions and to its voters. used_for: Protecting executive-session business. - name: Secret ballot meaning: An e-mail vote run as an election in Surveys & Voting and closed from its certified result. used_for: Contested elections that need secrecy or certification. relationships: - to: CON-CMT-MTG-001 statement: an in-room decision belongs to a meeting that is neither a draft nor cancelled, whose attendance at opening is its quorum basis provenance: observed source: services-committees:modules/decisions/services/persistence/decisions.ts - to: CON-CMT-MTG-004 statement: a voter’s standing disclosure that names what the decision is linked to suggests their recusal provenance: test source: services-committees:modules/decisions/tests/integration/services/disclosures.integration.spec.ts#suggests the voter whose accepted disclosure names the decision’s linked organization, and why - to: CON-CMT-MTG-006 statement: slating a nomination may open a decision of kind appointment whose carrying elects the nominee provenance: test source: services-committees:modules/recruitment/tests/integration/services/nominations.integration.spec.ts#marks the nomination elected when the decision carries lifecycle: - state: Draft meaning: Written but not yet put to the vote; no number. how_it_changes: Opened, tabled or withdrawn. - state: Open meaning: Voting is under way; rules, voters and presence are frozen. how_it_changes: Closed by staff or by the hourly sweep, tabled or withdrawn. - state: Carried, failed or no quorum meaning: Decided; the result and arithmetic are the record. how_it_changes: A carried decision becomes superseded when an amendment or rescission of it carries. - state: Tabled or withdrawn meaning: Set aside before a result; taking it up again is a new decision. how_it_changes: Nothing moves it again. - state: Superseded meaning: Replaced by a later carried decision, keeping its number and text. how_it_changes: Nothing moves it again. acted_on_by: - CAP-CMT-MTG-008 - CAP-CMT-MTG-010 - CAP-CMT-MTG-011 - CAP-CMT-MTG-012 - CAP-CMT-MTG-013 - CAP-CMT-MTG-015 - CAP-CMT-MTG-018 - CAP-CMT-MTG-020 visible_to: - ACT-CMT-002 - ACT-CMT-008 - ACT-CMT-005 - ACT-CMT-009 evidence: - 'services-committees at 36129c24: decisions, voters, votes, recusals and counters tables, decisions services, decision engine and rule document; CMTE-M4 record' - 'react-console at baf6dae3: acceptance inventory decisions area and the decisions journeys' supersedes: - react-console acceptance inventory decisions area (CAP-CMT-DEC) --- # Decision ## What It Is A decision is a formal act of a committee: a motion moved and voted at a meeting, a resolution, an item on the consent agenda, the approval of minutes, an appointment or removal of a member, the chartering or dissolving of a committee. It can also be taken outside a meeting, as an e-mail vote with a closing time. Staff draft it with its title and text, kind, voting method, movers and what it does if it carries. When it opens, it takes the committee’s next number for the year, such as 2026-14, and the committee’s bylaw rules, its threshold, its voters and, at a meeting, who is present are frozen with it. Votes or a tally are recorded, and closing works out the result from the rules, with the arithmetic written in plain sentences. From then on the decision is a permanent record: it is never changed or deleted. Rhythm 1.0 had no record of committee decisions; associations kept them in minutes and spreadsheets. ## What It Is Not A decision is not the minutes: the minutes narrate the meeting and mention its decisions, but each decision keeps its own number, votes and result. It is not an election in Surveys & Voting, although a secret ballot runs there and closes the decision from its certified result. It is not the appointment it makes: a carried appointment decision creates an appointment that names it, but the appointment is Committees’ roster record. And it is not an agenda item, though an in-room decision may sit under one. ## How It Is Used The secretary or staff liaison drafts motions before or during a meeting, opens each when it is moved, records the roll call or the chair’s declaration, and closes it. Between meetings the chair puts a matter to an e-mail vote; members vote in the portal and the vote closes itself on the hour after its closing time. Staff search the register for a decision by words, kind, outcome or date. A carried appointment, removal, approval or charter takes effect at once. A later decision can amend or rescind a carried one. Good use gives every formal act a number, a result and arithmetic a member can check. What is unsettled: a removal of someone who has since resigned cannot close and can only be withdrawn, and a carried removal or charter cannot be rescinded at all; and the decisions milestone carries no product decisions yet, so almost all of this is the architecture’s position. ## Its Facets The kind decides what a decision does and which threshold judges it. The method decides whether individual votes or a tally are recorded and whether a meeting is needed. The decision number is the committee’s sequence for the year. The rule document holds the committee’s bylaws, frozen at opening with the chosen threshold. The voters are the voting roster frozen at opening, with who was present. Votes and tallies are the evidence of the result. Consequences are what a carried decision does. Amendments and rescissions supersede earlier decisions while keeping them on record. Confidentiality hides executive-session decisions. Secret ballots run in Surveys & Voting. ## How It Relates An in-room decision belongs to a meeting and takes its quorum from that meeting’s attendance. Its voters come from the committee’s roster, owned by the Committees module, and its consequences act through that module’s appointment and committee operations. A voter’s disclosures suggest recusals from it. A nomination’s slate becomes a decision of kind appointment. Minutes are approved by a decision of kind approval. Secret ballots depend on Surveys & Voting, which is not built. ## What It Could Become Product has recorded no decisions for this milestone, so every rule here is proposed. Open edges: correcting a typo in a draft before it opens, adding a voter left off a frozen list, ratifying an e-mail vote at the next meeting, showing a decision’s change history, how a carried removal or charter is reversed, and whether a body whose rules say it makes no formal decisions should be refused decisions instead of being judged under Robert’s Rules.