> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.kayanos.com/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Committees: seats, agenda sources and ratification

> Run a committee whose seats belong to positions and outside bodies, whose agenda fills itself from records waiting for it, and whose minutes go up for ratification before a decision touches the record.

A committee in KayanOS is a set of related record types (the committee, its memberships, sessions, agenda items, attendance and declarations) that the **Collective decision** section of the builder manages together. This page covers three optional parts that build on it: seats held by a position or an outside body, agenda sources, and ratification of the minutes.

## Start here

1. In **Builder › Apps and navigation › Optional features**, turn on **Committees & collective decisions**, then the parts you need under it: **Seats by position and outside bodies**, **Agenda from records** and **Ratification after the minutes**. Each part stays hidden until it is on, and turning it off later keeps its settings.
2. Create the committee types with **Create a committee from the template**, or open an existing committee type and go to **Collective decision**.
3. Work through the tabs. Every setting has a help button with an explanation, use cases and an example. **Review and publish** lists the problems that block publishing.

> [!NOTE]
>
> Committee work is checked by the seat a member holds today: the chair and the rapporteur act by their capacity. A secretariat or an oversight unit without a seat needs the committee verbs (for example **Accept or defer proposals** or **See the decisions register**) in a role on the committee type. The **Committee permissions** tab shows the whole table. If a button is missing, check [Permissions and availability](https://docs.kayanos.com/reference/permissions-and-availability.md).

> **See the screen**
>
> ![KayanOS committee builder with each capacity's votes, quorum, tie-break, limits and who may hold it (person, position, outside body).](https://kayanos.app/docs-images/en/build/committees.png)

## Steps, examples, and reference

> **Seats held by a position or an outside body**
>
> ## Seats held by a position or an outside body
>
> In **Capacities & members**, the **Who may hold it** column says who may hold a seat of each capacity: a named **person**, a **position** (whoever holds it on the day), or an **outside body** (its representative, named by a nomination letter).
>
> * **Position seats**: the holder is resolved when the session is scheduled and again when it convenes, then frozen when it closes. An acting appointee (**Acting**) holds the seat while the principal is away. When a position has more than one holder, choose **The earliest appointed**, **The rapporteur picks**, or **Convening is blocked**.
> * **Outside-body seats**: record the representative, the alternate and the nomination letter on the membership. With **External members’ signatures** set in **Minutes & ratification**, they sign the minutes online with a one-time code, or the rapporteur uploads the signed paper copy.
> * **Vacant seats**: choose whether a vacant seat **stays in the quorum's base** (the secretariat can name someone for one session) or **is left out until filled**.
>
> **Try the resolution** shows who would sit on a date and what the quorum would be. Every change of holder is kept in the seat history on the committee page.
>
> Example: the Revenue Director's seat is held by the acting director Samer K. under appointment 88/2026 while Ghada N. is on leave; the session's minutes record «Samer K. (acting for Ghada N.)».

> **Agenda sources**
>
> ## Agenda sources
>
> In **Agenda sources**, add a source for each record type that comes to the committee: the type, the status that means «waiting for the committee», which committee (a fixed one, or read from a field of the record), the papers an item needs, the rapporteur's recommendation field, and the cutoff in working days before the session.
>
> A record that reaches the status is proposed for the next session after the cutoff. The secretariat accepts it (it becomes an agenda item) or defers it with a reason; a record sits on one open session at a time, and a deferred item goes back to the queue. Missing papers block acceptance. While the record waits, its clock is paused (with stop-the-clock installed) and resumes at the decision or at ratification.
>
> **Try it on live records** runs the source against live records for a chosen session and shows, for each record, whether it would be proposed, which papers it lacks, or whether it missed the cutoff.

> **Minutes and ratification**
>
> ## Minutes and ratification
>
> In **Minutes & ratification**:
>
> * **Deliberation notes and decision text** let the chair and the rapporteur write what was discussed and the decision's wording on each item; both go into the minutes.
> * **Ratification** adds the ratification step after the minutes are approved. The **ratifier** comes from the [authority matrix](https://docs.kayanos.com/build/authority-matrix.md): in **Authority › Bindings**, add a binding of kind **F10 committee** that takes the **ratifier**, with the committee type's key as its reference (or `type key:committee id` for one committee, which wins over the type's). When the minutes go up, the matrix answers with the signer in force that day (the holder, an acting appointee, a delegate under a decree, or an away cover), and the memo shows the matrix row, its legal source and the capacity. If the matrix gives no ratifier (no binding, no row, a vacant position), the minutes are not sent and the reason is shown.
> * **Ratify each item** lets the ratifier ratify, ratify with a change (the changed text is what the record receives), or not ratify each item; otherwise the whole minutes are ratified or returned.
> * **When returned**: the records go back to the queue for the next session, or the decisions wait for the minutes to be sent again.
> * **The effect applies** at the decision or at ratification. At ratification, nothing changes on the record until the ratifier answers.
>
> The ratifier answers from the ratification memo, reached from the notification and the signing folder (the memo lists each decision with the committee's vote). The session moves to «Ratified» once every decision has an answer.

> **The outcome letter**
>
> ## The outcome letter
>
> In **Minutes & ratification**, under **Effect of the decision on the subject record**, a write-back row can name the subject type's **Issue official document** action (see [Issue official documents from records](https://docs.kayanos.com/build/official-document-issue.md)). When a decision applies, the committee drafts that action on the record as the secretariat (the member who sent the minutes for ratification, else the rapporteur). The letter follows the action's own template, recipients and signing chain, and its number comes back to the decision in the register once it is issued.
>
> Without an action, the secretariat records the letter number in the **Decisions register**.

> **Using a committee**
>
> ## Using a committee
>
> * **Committee page**: the next session with its proposals, forecast attendance against the quorum, vacant and acting seats, the queue, and the latest decisions. The **Seats** tab lists each seat, its holder today, and its history.
> * **Session page**: the agenda with papers and recommendations, the proposals for this session, the invitations (letter or portal for outside bodies), and the minutes and ratification tab.
> * **Pre-read pack**: each member reads the papers and declares any conflict of interest per item, on a phone as well. Papers of a conflicted item stay hidden from that member until the decision.
> * **Session room**: who sits in each seat and on what basis (named, by position, acting, by nomination), vacant seats, notes and decision text, and the case card of each item.
> * **Decisions register**: every decision of the committees you can see, with its ratification, its effect on the record and its letter. Filter by pending ratification, failed effect, or no letter, and export.
> * **On the record**: a record that went to a committee shows its decisions, its committee timeline and how long its clock was paused.


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