Roll call is the moment, usually right after the meeting is called to order, when staff records who's attending the meeting and how they're attending it. In Govinity, roll call is a structured record per meeting body — present or absent, physical or remote, excused or unexcused, with notes — and unlike some meeting management tools, it's never locked. You can record an initial roll call at the start of the meeting and then record status changes any time during the meeting as members arrive late, leave early, or step out for recusal.

Where to find it

On any meeting page, click the Roll Call tab in the meeting page navigation.

IMAGE: Meeting page with the Roll Call tab selected, showing the Edit Roll Call card

The Roll Call tab is part of the Recording module (hasRecord flag). If your government doesn't have the Recording module, the tab is locked with a lock icon. Reach out to your account team if you need access.

Single-body vs. multi-body meetings

For a single-body meeting (the typical case — a Council meeting, a Planning Commission meeting), you land directly on the roll call form for the one body. No tabs.

For a joint meeting with multiple bodies, the page shows a tab bar with one tab per body. Each tab has its own roll call form with the members of that body.

IMAGE: A multi-body meeting roll call page showing tabs for each body

Take roll call separately for each body — switching tabs preserves form state in each. The history below the form is also per-body, so each body's attendance record is kept independent.

What the form shows

The form is a table with six columns. Each row is one seat on the meeting body, identified by both the seat (Seat 1, District 3 Representative, etc.) and the member currently assigned to that seat.

IMAGE: The Roll Call form table with columns for Seat, Member, Status, Participation, Absence Type, and Notes

The columns:

Seat — the seat number and title (e.g., "Seat 1," "District 3 Representative"), plus the seat type if set ("Voting," "Alternate," etc.).
Member — the meeting member assigned to the seat, with avatar, name, email, and phone. Vacant seats don't appear in the roll call (only seats with active assignments do).
Status — a switch labeled "Absent ↔ Present." Default is Present.
Participation — a dropdown (Physical / Remote). Used only when Status is Present.
Absence Type — a dropdown (Excused / Unexcused). Used only when Status is Absent.
Notes — a text area for any additional context (e.g., "Arrived at 7:15," "Recused on Item 5," "Joined remotely via Zoom").

How the columns interact

The form has automatic interlocks:

When you switch a row to Absent, the Participation dropdown is disabled (an absent member can't be Physical or Remote — they're not there).
When you switch a row to Present, the Absence Type dropdown is disabled (a present member doesn't have an absence reason).

You can't mark someone as both Present and Excused, or Absent and Physical — the UI prevents the contradiction.

Default values from the last roll call

When you load the Roll Call tab, the form pre-fills each row based on the last recorded roll call for this meeting body. So:

First-time roll call for a brand-new meeting — every member defaults to Present + Physical.
Subsequent roll calls (loaded on the same meeting after a previous record) — every member defaults to whatever they were marked as in the most recent recorded roll call.

This is intentional: roll call typically doesn't change much during a meeting, and pre-filling from the previous record means you only need to flip the rows that actually changed.

The three submit buttons

The form has up to three submit buttons, depending on the roll call's state:

Save Roll Call (draft)

Visible when no recorded roll call exists yet (or when the only existing one is a draft). Clicking Save Roll Call creates or updates a draft roll call — i.e., a record that exists in Govinity but isn't yet part of the official history.

Use Save when:

You're capturing initial attendance data before the meeting officially starts, in case you need to come back to it.
You want to enter values now but commit to recording them later.

A draft roll call doesn't appear in the Roll Call History below. It's a working set for staff use.

Record Roll Call

Always visible (as the primary button). Clicking Record Roll Call records the current form state to the meeting body's history. Three different behaviors depending on state:

No roll call exists — creates a new recorded roll call.
A draft roll call exists — replaces the draft with the current form state and promotes it to recorded.
A recorded roll call already exists — creates an additional recorded roll call entry on top of the existing one(s). The history will show both.

Use Record Roll Call when:

You're committing the initial attendance record at the start of the meeting.
A member's attendance status has changed and you want to record a fresh, complete record (e.g., the meeting body has been excused and reconvened with different membership).

Record Status Changes

Visible when a recorded roll call exists AND the form is dirty (you've changed values from the last recorded state). Clicking Record Status Changes records only the changed rows as a diff against the last recorded roll call.

Use Record Status Changes when:

One or two members have changed status mid-meeting (arrived late, left early, stepped out).
You don't want to re-record the entire roll — just the deltas.

The history below will show the original recorded roll call AND a separate "status change" entry for the changed rows.

This is the typical workflow for late arrivals, early departures, and recusal records: open the Roll Call tab, flip the changed rows, click Record Status Changes.

The Roll Call History

Below the Edit Roll Call card, a separate Roll Call History card shows every recorded entry for this meeting body, in chronological order (most recent at the top).

IMAGE: The Roll Call History card showing past recorded entries with timestamps

Each history entry shows:

The type — initial Roll Call or Status Change.
The timestamp — when it was recorded.
A table of the relevant rows, showing each member's status, participation, absence type, and notes.

For a Status Change entry, only the rows that changed appear in the table — the unchanged rows are implied to still be at their previous values.

Drafts don't appear in history. Only recorded entries — initial roll calls and status changes — are shown. If you've been saving drafts but never recording, the history will be empty.

A typical meeting-day workflow

For a meeting that runs from 7:00 PM:

6:45 PM: Staff opens the Roll Call tab in advance. Reviews the seat list, makes sure it matches expected attendance. No clicks needed yet.

7:00 PM: Meeting is called to order. The chair calls for roll. Staff updates the form for any absent members (flip Absent, set Excused / Unexcused). Adds notes for any members joining remotely. Clicks Record Roll Call to commit the initial attendance.

7:30 PM: A member arrives late. Staff opens the Roll Call tab, flips the late member from Absent to Present, marks Participation as Physical, adds a note "Arrived at 7:30." Clicks Record Status Changes.

8:15 PM: Same member steps out for a recusal on a contentious item. Staff opens the tab again, flips the member back to Absent, marks Excused. Clicks Record Status Changes.

8:45 PM: The member returns. Staff flips back to Present, clicks Record Status Changes.

9:30 PM: Meeting adjourns. The history shows: initial roll call at 7:00 PM, and three status change entries at 7:30, 8:15, and 8:45.

This kind of detailed attendance record is exactly what the diff system is designed for — the meeting minutes can reference each status change explicitly, and the record is fully transparent.

What this article doesn't cover

A few things that live elsewhere:

Quorum calculation — Govinity doesn't expose a "quorum met" indicator in the Roll Call UI. The quorum threshold is configured per body, and quorum status is reflected in other places (Board Health, public portal). Roll Call is for recording the data; quorum calculation happens against it elsewhere.
Late status — there's no built-in "Late" status. Use the Notes column to record arrival time, and consider recording the late arrival as a Status Change so the history captures the timing.
Editing past roll calls — once recorded, a roll call entry can't be edited. To correct a mistake, record a new entry with the correct values. The history will show both.
Deleting roll calls — same — recorded roll calls can't be deleted from the UI. Reach out to Govinity support if you need to remove an erroneous record.

Common questions

Can I record roll call before the meeting is set live? Yes. The Roll Call tab is available regardless of meeting status. Some clerks pre-populate attendance early; others wait until the meeting officially starts.

Can I take roll call without an agenda? Yes. Roll call doesn't depend on the agenda being built or finalized.

What if a seat is vacant on the meeting body? Vacant seats don't appear in the Roll Call form — only active member assignments do. So a 7-seat body with 1 vacant seat will show 6 rows in roll call.

What happens to roll call if the meeting is cancelled? Existing roll call entries stay associated with the meeting. The Roll Call tab still loads on cancelled meetings.

Can I see past roll calls from previous meetings? Yes — each meeting's history is on its own Roll Call tab. There's no cross-meeting attendance dashboard built into Govinity, though you could export roll call data via reports if your government has that need.

How does roll call interact with multi-body meetings? Each body gets its own tab with its own form and history. They're entirely separate records — Body A's roll call doesn't affect Body B's. Take roll call on each tab if both bodies are meeting.

Need help?

If members you expect to see aren't appearing in the roll call form, check the meeting body's seat assignments — vacant seats don't show. If you can't take roll call because the tab is locked, your government may not have the Recording module. For anything else, reach out to Govinity support.

Taking Roll Call