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Why Can't My New Member See Anything? ​

You have just added a new member to your portal and they are telling you they cannot see meetings, documents, or other content. As an admin you can see everything, so it can be unclear why they are having trouble.

The Short Answer ​

Members with basic roles only see content they have been specifically invited to or granted access to. When you add a new member, they start with a mostly empty portal — not because something is broken, but because they have not been invited to anything yet.

You see everything because you are an admin. Their portal will always look emptier than yours, and that is normal. It is how Our Cat Herder keeps information separate across different groups within your organisation.

Which Roles Does This Apply To?

This applies to all roles with restricted access: Staff, Member, Ordinary Member/Director, Other, Ex-Officio, Auditor, Guest, and Billing Contact. Senior and office-holder roles (Chair, Secretary, Treasurer, etc.) have broader access and may not experience the same issues. See Roles, Permissions & Access for a full comparison, or watch the Admin vs Staff Comparison video to see the difference side by side.

What they can and cannot see ​

Meetings ​

This is the most common issue. The new member opens Meetings and sees nothing, or far fewer meetings than expected.

Members with basic roles can only see meetings they have been invited to as an attendee. If they have not been added to any meetings, their list is empty.

Sometimes new members also miss that there are past meetings listed separately — they may only be looking at the upcoming meetings section and not realise there is more below.

How to fix it:

  • Invite the member to each meeting via the meeting's Attendees section
  • Use Batch Add on the Meetings page to add them to multiple past meetings at once as a viewer — this is the quickest way to give a new member access to historical meeting papers and minutes

For more detail, see My Members Can't See Meetings.

Documents ​

Also very common. The new member says they cannot see files, cannot open a document link you shared with them, or sees far fewer folders than you do.

Document access is controlled at the folder level, not the file level:

  • Top-level files (files not inside any folder) are visible to everyone on the portal
  • Files inside folders are only accessible if the member has been granted access to that folder
  • Direct links do not bypass permissions — if you copy a link to a file and share it with someone who does not have access to its folder, they will see a "failed to get attachment" error or get redirected away

This catches a lot of admins out. You copy a file link and share it via email or a discussion post, but the recipient cannot open it because they do not have folder access.

How to fix it:

  1. Go to Documents and find the folder
  2. Click the three dots and select Access Members
  3. Add the member
  4. Tick Apply to subfolders if you want access to cascade down to all folders within that folder

Once you do this, the member can see and download all files in that folder and any subfolders you applied access to. You can also adjust access at any subfolder level if you need to restrict something further down.

For more detail, see My Members Can't See Documents.

Discussions ​

The new member may see very few discussion groups, or none at all.

They only see groups they have been added to, plus any open groups. Closed groups they are not a member of are hidden entirely.

You can tell whether a group is open or closed by the padlock icon:

  • Locked padlock — closed group (invite only)
  • Unlocked padlock — open group (any portal member can join)
  • Filled/coloured icon — the member has joined the group
  • Unfilled/outline icon — the member has not joined the group

Members can join open groups themselves, but they will need to be added to closed groups by an admin or group owner.

Once inside a group, all members can add topics and manage their own notification settings. Only admins have the extra options for downloading content, adjusting group settings, viewing subscriber lists, and deleting groups.

Decisions ​

The new member may see far fewer decisions than you do.

Members must be added as a voter or viewer to see each decision. If they have not been invited, it will not appear in their list at all. On the same portal, an admin might see 121 past decisions while a staff member sees only 28.

For more detail, see My Members Can't See Decisions.

Actions ​

Their actions list will likely be much smaller than yours.

Members only see actions they are assigned to. An admin might see 148 actions across the portal, while a member with a basic role sees 25. The dashboard and calendar views work the same way — only their assigned actions appear.

They can still filter and contribute to their own actions, and send action reports for meetings they have access to.

Registers ​

Registers are probably the most complex area for permissions. The new member may see very few registers, or they may be able to access one they were not explicitly added to.

A member gets access to a register in two ways:

  1. Direct invitation — they are added to the register with a specific access level:

    • Viewer — read-only access
    • Contributor — can add entries
    • Manager — full management access

  2. Meeting type linkage — if a register is linked to a meeting type (e.g. Annual General Meeting), any member invited to meetings of that type can view the register. It may not appear in their register list, but they can access it via a direct link. This is how registers get surfaced during meetings without needing individual invitations.

If a register has no meeting type linked and the member has not been directly added, they will not be able to access it at all.

For more detail, see My Members Can't See Registers.

All portal members can see all links — there are no viewing restrictions here. Members can only edit or delete links they personally created. Admins can manage all links.

Dashboard and calendar ​

The dashboard layout is the same for everyone — discussions, decisions, upcoming meetings, and actions — but the content is personalised. The new member will only see:

  • Actions they are assigned to
  • Decisions they are invited to
  • Meetings they are an attendee of
  • Discussion groups they belong to

The calendar view is the same — it only shows events and actions for that member.

Settings, activity log, billing and reports ​

These are Admin-only. Members with any other role who try to access them, even via a direct URL, get redirected away.

Members list ​

Everyone on the portal can view the member list and basic information about other members. Only admins can edit profiles, resend invitations, reset MFA, and manage roles.

Onboarding checklist ​

When you add a new member, work through this list to make sure they have what they need:

  1. Invite them to meetings — use Batch Add to add them to past meetings as a viewer
  2. Grant folder access in Documents and apply to subfolders
  3. Add them to discussion groups, or point them to open groups they can join themselves
  4. Invite them to active decisions as a voter or viewer
  5. Add them to registers with the appropriate access level (Viewer, Contributor, or Manager)
  6. Assign them actions if they have responsibilities that need tracking
  7. Let them know their portal will look emptier than yours, and that is normal

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