Understanding System Users and Group Members

Important Notes:

• A GovernSpot user may be assigned to one or more groups. 
• GovernSpot users may be internal or external to a single organization.
• Only users who have been added to a group as a member can see the group and access a group's related information.

Main Information Objects:

A user is an individual granted access rights to a governspot.net account. Most user rights are controlled by and associated with their status as a member of a group (group member). 

 User
A user is an individual granted access rights to a governspot.net account. A user may be assigned to one or more groups and, once assigned, is considered a 'group member'.

Group Member
A group member is an individual associated with a group and may be assigned one or more roles within the group, including:

• Group Chair - A member with this role will be displayed as the Chair in various areas of the application and possesses administrative rights to a group's functions including controlling membership, editing or deleting various group information, and starting and ending votes on topics.
• Group Administrator - A member with this role will be displayed as the Administrator in various areas of the application and possesses administrative rights to a group's functions including controlling membership, editing or deleting various group information, and starting and ending votes on topics.
• Group Member - A member with this role will be displayed as a Member in various areas of the application and possesses access rights to a group's information as well as the right to comment on topics.
• Observer/Auditor - A member with this role possesses read-only access to the group. Unlike other group roles, a member with the role of 'Observer/Auditor' may not possess any other role in the group.

A group may possess more than one chair and/or more than one administrator.

Additionally, any group role may optionally be granted or restricted from voting on decisional topics. Each member may also be assigned a 'vote value' which will enables certain votes to count more or proportionally to others. An example of a vote value is the number of shares an individual holds or a governance model where the Chair's vote counts as two votes.

Additional information on groups may be access here.

Meeting Attendee
A group member will automatically be invited to all meetings and meeting series created and within each meeting, attendance may be recorded by a group's chair or administrator. Additional information on meetings may be access here.

Topic Voter
For decisional topics, a group member with voting rights may vote on a topic when the voting period for the topic is open. A group member may vote for, against, or formally 'abstain' from a vote. additional information on topics may be access here.

Commenter
A group member may also formally comment on topics as a mechanism for conveying opinions or requesting additional information from the topic owner.