Every board meeting,
filed by its date

Boards work in meetings, so your folders should too. Make one folder for each year, and inside it one folder for each meeting, named by its date. Everything the board saw at that meeting stays together.

Put the agenda, the board packet and the minutes in that folder. Add attachments the packet refers to, like the financial statements, so no one has to hunt for them later.

Start with the meeting date, year then month then day, followed by the document type. The files sort in the order the meetings happened, and the name still makes sense when it is attached to an email.

Put the status in the name for minutes. Minutes-Draft and Minutes-Approved are hard to confuse, while “final” and “final2” are not. Special meetings and committee meetings can carry a label in the name.

Minutes only become the record once the board approves them, which is usually at the next meeting. Until then, keep them in a drafts folder. After the vote, save the approved copy in the meeting’s folder and delete or archive the draft.

Check that the approved copy matches what the board voted on. If amendments were made at the meeting, the approved version should include them. Many boards also keep a signed or stamped copy, so file that as the approved one.

Many nonprofit boards rely on a secretary’s habits: a shared drive folder, an email thread for each packet, and a binder for the signed minutes. It works while the same person holds the role, and it gets harder at every handover.

Larger boards often move to a board portal, which keeps packets and votes in one place but may not hold your older scans or documents from other sources. Filex sits alongside either habit. You describe the rule in plain words, upload the documents, and it reads each one and files it.

It files documents. It does not take minutes, send packets to directors, record votes, or tell you how long to keep them, so check your bylaws or ask your counsel. It also needs the meeting date on the page, and it can only tell approved from draft if the page says so, such as a DRAFT watermark or a signed note.

Papers you upload later are filed as they arrive. Last year’s binder of old packets is a separate clean-up, and executive session minutes are best kept in their own restricted folder that you set up yourself.