Discovering Our Cat Herder Admin: Actions

Recorded 6 October 2025

What's Covered

This video walks through the Actions feature in Our Cat Herder, covering the two types of actions, where to find them, and how to filter, export, and manage them.

• Dashboard — My Actions — view up to 10 of your outstanding actions, update their status, or click through to the Actions page for details
• Actions Page — Admin users see all actions across all portal members; regular users see only actions assigned to them
• Two Types of Actions:
  • Meeting actions — linked to a specific agenda item or sub-agenda item in a meeting
  • Standalone actions — sit outside the meeting cycle, useful for policy reviews, ongoing tasks, or follow-ups not tied to a meeting
• Filtering Actions — use the advanced filter options to narrow actions by:
  • Status (Not Yet Started, On Hold, In Progress, Complete, Closed)
  • Date range
  • Specific assignees
  • Meeting types
• Exporting Custom Action Reports — export filtered actions as PDF or CSV, with the option to include comments. See the full guide: Export Custom Action Reports
• Attaching an Action Report to a Meeting — attach the exported report directly to a meeting agenda item instead of downloading. See: Attach an Action Report to a Meeting
• Action Comments — add comments to actions to collaborate with other assignees; comments can be public (notifies other assignees) or private (notes to yourself). Comments can be edited or deleted within one hour
• Action Numbering — actions are automatically numbered (e.g. A-17-001). Turn this on or off in Settings. Numbering starts sequentially from when it is turned on and does not retrospectively number existing actions
• Actions in Meetings:
  • Click the Actions button on a meeting's details page to view all outstanding actions for that meeting type across past meetings
  • Toggle between Current (outstanding) and Closed action views, with an option to Show Comments
  • Open and Closed Actions documents are automatically included in the meeting pack — to remove them, go to Meeting Pack > Settings and untick the actions documents
• Adding Actions in Meetings — add actions from the meeting details page or from within the full-screen minute taker mode. Actions are automatically linked to the relevant agenda item
• Action Assignees — assign actions to people who don't need portal access by adding them as Action Assignees in the Members area (first name, last name, and email required)

Complete vs Closed

Complete and Closed both mark an action as no longer needing work, but they behave differently inside Our Cat Herder.

Status	Where it appears	Use it when
Complete	Stays on the main Actions list and on the Open Actions PDF attached to the meeting pack. Removed from the assignee's My Actions on the Dashboard.	The assignee has finished the work and you want the action to remain visible on the open actions list (for example, so it is reported in the next meeting before being formally cleared).
Closed	Hidden from the main Actions area unless you specifically filter to include closed actions. Moved into the Closed Actions PDF attached to the meeting pack. Removed from the assignee's My Actions on the Dashboard.	The action no longer needs to appear on the outstanding list — for example, it has been reported, signed off, superseded, or is no longer relevant.

Carry-forward behaviour: Complete actions are still carried forward to the next meeting of the same type, so they remain visible in the next meeting's Open Actions list until they are Closed. Only Closed actions stop being carried forward. Closed is the final "archive" state; Complete is best thought of as "done but still on the open list".