The Overview tab is the home base for every meeting in Govinity. It's the first thing you see when you click into a meeting and the page you'll return to between tasks — to check the meeting's status, to edit its details, to launch any of the other tabs, or to take a lifecycle action like setting the meeting live, completing it, cancelling it, or deleting it.
This article walks through what's on the Overview page: the three main cards on the left, the Meeting Actions sidebar on the right, and the rules that govern which actions are available when. It's deliberately a "what does each thing mean" article — the deeper how-tos for specific actions (building the agenda, taking roll call, recording minutes, etc.) live in their own articles.
Where to find it
Click any meeting from the Live & Upcoming Meetings, Past Meetings, or Calendar list. You'll land on the meeting's Overview tab automatically.
[IMAGE: A meeting page showing the Overview tab selected with the three cards on the left and the actions sidebar on the right]
The Overview tab is the leftmost tab in the meeting page's 6-tab navigation. You can always click back to it from any other tab.
The layout
The page is a two-column grid:
Left column (about 75% width) — three stacked cards: Meeting Event Details, Meeting Progress, User Role Management.
Right column (about 25% width) — the Meeting Actions sidebar.
[IMAGE: The Overview page split into left and right columns, with the three cards on the left and the actions sidebar on the right]
The left side tells you what the meeting is and how far along it is; the right side gives you what to do next. Read top-to-bottom on the left, then look at the sidebar to figure out your next click.
Meeting Event Details (read-only)
The first card on the left summarizes the meeting's facts:
Date — meeting date and time in your government's timezone.
Location — saved location with address, or free-text fallback.
Media Encoder — only shown if your government has the Recording module and an encoder is assigned.
Created — when the meeting record was created.
Status — current status badge (Upcoming, Live, Completed, Cancelled).
Virtual Meeting URL — clickable link to Zoom, Teams, etc. (opens in a new tab).
[IMAGE: The Meeting Event Details card showing date, location, encoder, created date, status, and virtual URL]
Everything on this card is read-only. To change any of these values, click Edit Meeting in the actions sidebar (available only while the meeting is still Upcoming).
The card itself doesn't have action buttons — it's a reference panel. Think of it as the meeting's identity card.
Meeting Progress
The second card tracks the three big work artifacts of a meeting — Agenda, Minutes, Media — and shows you where each one stands. Each artifact is a row with a status badge, a short description, and a contextual button.
[IMAGE: The Meeting Progress card with three rows — Agenda, Minutes, Media — each showing status]
The Agenda row
The Agenda row has the richest state machine of the three. Depending on what's been done:
No agenda yet — the row shows "Add an agenda for the meeting" with an Add button. Clicking Add opens the Agenda Create dialog (pick a template or start blank).
In Progress (blue badge) — the agenda exists but hasn't been finalized. Description: "Draft Agenda in progress." The row shows an Edit button (jumps to the Agenda tab) and a small trash icon to delete the agenda. The trash prompts: "If you delete the Agenda all its information will be lost. Are you sure?"
Finalized (info-alt2 badge) — the agenda has been finalized but not yet published. Description: "Agenda finalized, but not yet published." The Edit button takes you to the Agenda tab; the trash is gone (finalized agendas can't be deleted in one click — you'd need to Undo Finalize first).
Complete (green badge) — the agenda has been published. Description: "Agenda published." Same Edit button.
If your government doesn't have the Agenda module (hasAgenda is off), this row is greyed out with a lock and the description: "This feature is not available. Upgrade your subscription to enable this feature."
The Minutes row
Shows whether minutes have been started for the meeting. The row description toggles based on state ("Record meeting minutes" / "Meeting documented") and the row links to the Minutes tab when clicked.
If your government doesn't have the Recording module (hasRecord is off), this row is greyed out with a lock.
The Media row
Shows whether a recording exists for the meeting. Two states:
Pending — description "Upload meeting recording" with an Add button (jumps to the Media tab).
Complete (green badge) — description "Meeting recorded." Edit button to view or manage the recording.
Same hasRecord gating as Minutes.
User Role Management
The third card shows every user with a role assigned to this specific meeting.
[IMAGE: The User Role Management card with users listed and their assigned roles as removable badges]
Each row in the card represents a user (with avatar and name). Next to the user, their per-meeting roles appear as badges with small X icons — clicking the X removes that role for this meeting only.
If no users have meeting-specific roles, the card shows the empty state: "No roles assigned for this meeting."
The card's header has an Assign Roles button (visible only to System Admins). Clicking it opens the Assign Roles dialog where you pick a user and one or more roles to grant for this meeting.
These per-meeting role assignments are overrides on top of the user's normal meeting-body role assignments. Use them for:
A staffer covering a meeting their colleague usually covers (e.g., backup Agenda Clerk for one specific Council meeting).
A board chair temporarily acting as Minutes Clerk for a special session.
A consultant or guest who needs limited access to a single meeting.
For more on the Assign Roles dialog and what each role enables, see Completing, Cancelling, and Deleting a Meeting (+ Role Overrides).
The Meeting Actions sidebar
The right column is the Meeting Actions card — a vertical stack of action buttons that adapt to the meeting's state and your role.
[IMAGE: The Meeting Actions sidebar showing all available action buttons]
The sidebar is divided by a separator into two groups: navigation-and-edit actions above (always present even if some are disabled), and lifecycle actions below (Set Live, Complete, Cancel, Delete).
Top group: navigation and edit
These buttons mostly link you into the other tabs or open dialogs:
Edit Meeting (calendar-cog icon) — opens the New Meeting dialog in edit mode. Disabled unless the meeting is Upcoming. Once a meeting is Live, Completed, or Cancelled, you can't edit its basic details from this button.
Create Agenda / Edit Agenda (file icon) — toggles based on whether the meeting has an agenda yet. Create opens the Agenda Create dialog; Edit jumps to the Agenda tab. Disabled if
hasAgendais off.Record Minutes / View Minutes (notebook icon) — toggles based on whether the agenda exists (you need an agenda to anchor minutes against). Jumps to the Minutes tab.
Upload Recording / View Recording (video/upload icon) — toggles based on whether a recording exists. Jumps to the Media tab.
View Documents (folder-open icon) — jumps to the Documents tab.
Assign User Roles (user-plus icon) — opens the Assign Roles dialog. System admins only (the button isn't visible to other users).
Bottom group: lifecycle actions
After a separator, the bottom group has the state-changing buttons:
Set Live (play icon) — visible only when status is Upcoming. Confirmation prompt: "This action will officially start the meeting, changing its status to Live. Are you sure?" Marks the meeting as Live and starts the live timer at the top of the page.
Set Complete — visible when status is Live, OR when the meeting is Upcoming but its date has passed (Govinity catches the case where a meeting wasn't formally set live but is clearly over). One-way action. See Completing, Cancelling, and Deleting a Meeting for the details.
Cancel Meeting — visible only when status is Upcoming. Opens a dialog with a required cancellation reason textarea.
Revert Cancellation (undo icon) — visible only when status is Cancelled AND the meeting date hasn't yet passed. Useful when a cancellation needs to be undone and the meeting will happen after all.
Delete Meeting (trash icon, red on hover) — visible at all times. Permanent deletion with no recovery UI. Confirmation prompt before the action commits.
For deeper coverage of Set Live / Complete / Cancel / Delete and what each does to roll call, minutes, and the recording, see Completing, Cancelling, and Deleting a Meeting.
Patterns to recognize
A few common scenarios and which buttons you'll use:
"This meeting was just scheduled. I need to start building the agenda." Click Create Agenda in the sidebar (or Add on the Agenda row in Meeting Progress). Pick a template. Land on the Agenda tab.
"The meeting starts in 5 minutes. I need to set it live." Click Set Live. Confirm. The status flips to Live and the live timer starts ticking at the top. Open the Roll Call tab to begin recording attendance.
"The meeting is over. I need to mark it complete." Click Set Complete. Confirm. Status changes to Completed. Note: if you were streaming live, clicking "End Meeting" in the Media tab also completes the meeting — same end state, different button.
"I need a backup Agenda Clerk for just this one meeting." Click Assign User Roles (system admin only). Pick the backup user, pick the Agenda Clerk role, click Assign Roles.
"The meeting is cancelled. Let me record that." Click Cancel Meeting. Type the cancellation reason. Confirm. Status changes to Cancelled and the reason is visible to anyone viewing the meeting.
"Oh wait, the meeting is back on." If status is Cancelled and the date hasn't yet passed, click Revert Cancellation. Status returns to Upcoming.
"I created this meeting by mistake." Click Delete Meeting. Confirm. The record is gone. (No recovery UI exists for deletes — only use this when you're certain.)
Permissions worth knowing
Edit Meeting is gated to the meeting being in Upcoming status. You can't change a Live or Completed meeting's basic details. If you really need to (e.g., correcting a typo in the title of a past meeting), reach out to Govinity support.
Assign User Roles is gated to System Admins only. Regular users (even Agenda Clerks) can't grant per-meeting roles.
Delete Meeting has no role gate but the confirmation prompt is your only safety check. Deleted meetings can't be recovered through the UI.
Lifecycle actions (Set Live, Set Complete, Cancel) are typically taken by Meeting Body Roles or higher — but the buttons themselves don't have explicit role gates; rather, the actions are governed by underlying permissions on the API side.
What this page doesn't do
A handful of things live on other pages or in admin:
Setting up a meeting body's default cadence — that's on the body's edit page (Admin → Meeting Bodies → [body]).
Configuring an agenda template — Admin → Agenda Templates.
Building the agenda's section structure — the Agenda tab (covered in Building the Agenda: Sections and Structure).
Editing the audio/video stream encoder — the Edit Meeting dialog has the Media Encoder field; encoder configuration itself is in apps/supportboard, not apps/web.
What to read next
The natural next articles depend on where you are in the meeting lifecycle:
Building the Agenda: Sections and Structure — the most common next step after creating a meeting.
Finalizing and Publishing the Agenda — when the agenda is ready to go out the door.
Taking Roll Call — meeting-day attendance.
Streaming the Meeting Live — if you stream meetings.
Completing, Cancelling, and Deleting a Meeting — the lifecycle actions in detail.
Need help?
If a button you expect to see is missing, the most common cause is meeting status (Edit Meeting and Set Live both require Upcoming) or a missing module flag (Minutes/Media/Roll Call all require hasRecord). If the Assign User Roles button is missing, check that you're signed in as a System Admin. For anything else, reach out to Govinity support.