Blocking and Archiving Members

When someone needs to leave your organization or have their access revoked, Boardwise provides two separate tools: blocking and archiving. Understanding when to use each helps you maintain security while preserving important historical records.

When to Block vs Archive

Block access when you need to immediately prevent someone from logging in. Use this for:
- Security concerns requiring instant revocation
- Employees who have been terminated
- Compromised accounts
- Anyone who should not access organization content right now

Archive when someone has left the organization and you want to clean up your directory. Use this for:
- Board members whose terms have ended
- Former employees who departed on good terms
- Advisors whose contracts have concluded
- Anyone you want to hide from the active directory but preserve for historical reference

In many cases, you will use both: block access first to revoke permissions, then archive to remove them from the active directory view.

Blocking Someone's Access

Blocking immediately prevents a person from logging into your organization, regardless of their roles or group memberships.

1. Navigate to People (Directory)
2. Find and click on the person you want to block
3. Click the Block Access button in the top right corner
4. Confirm when prompted

The person receives an email notification informing them that their access has been blocked.

What Blocking Does

When you block someone:
- They cannot log into the organization immediately
- They cannot view any meetings, documents, or other organization content
- They cannot sign or respond to your written consents, declarations or surveys, or complete their action items. If they belong to another organization on Boardwise, your organization's items disappear from their personal pages (My Action Items, messages, notes and notifications)
- If they follow a link to something of yours, they see only that their access to your organization has been turned off — nothing about the item itself
- Their roles and group memberships remain intact (but inactive)
- Their historical activity is preserved (comments, annotations, meeting attendance)
- A "Blocked" badge appears on their profile

Blocking is a security action. It takes effect instantly and does not require ending their affiliations first.

Unblocking Someone

If you need to restore access:

1. Go to People and find the blocked person (use the Blocked filter if needed)
2. Click on their name to view their profile
3. Click the Unblock Access button
4. Their access is restored immediately

After unblocking, the person can log in again. Their access level depends on their current roles and group memberships.

Archiving Members

Archiving hides someone from the active directory without deleting their record. This is useful for keeping your people list clean while preserving historical data.

1. Navigate to People (Directory)
2. Find and click on the person you want to archive
3. Click the Archive button in the top right corner

The person is immediately hidden from the default directory view.

What Archiving Does

When you archive someone:
- They disappear from the default People directory
- They can still be found using the Archived filter
- All their historical records remain intact
- They can be unarchived at any time

Archiving does not affect access permissions. If someone is archived but not blocked, they could still log in (assuming they have active affiliations). For departed members, you typically want to either:
- Block their access first, then archive them
- Use "Remove from Organization" to end all their affiliations, then archive them

Unarchiving Someone

To restore an archived person to the active directory:

1. Go to People and select the Archived filter
2. Find and click on the archived person
3. Click the Unarchive button

They immediately reappear in the active directory listing.

Removing Someone from the Organization

If you want to formally end all of someone's affiliations (role, board memberships, committee memberships), use the "Remove from Organization" action instead of or in addition to blocking:

1. Go to the person's edit page
2. Scroll to the Remove from Organization section
3. Set the removal date (defaults to today)
4. Click Remove from Organization

This ends their organizational role and all group memberships as of the specified date. Their meeting attendance history, comments, and annotations are preserved.

How Archived Members Affect Historical Records

Boardwise never deletes person records because they are connected to important historical data:

• Meeting attendance: Archived members still appear in historical meeting attendee lists
• Document annotations: Any annotations they made remain visible and attributed to them
• Comments: Their comments on agenda items and documents are preserved
• Action items: Historical action item assignments show their name
• Activity logs: Audit trails reference archived members by name

This design ensures that when you review past board meetings or look up historical decisions, you can always see who was involved, even if they are no longer active in the organization.

Tips for Corporate Secretaries

• Document the reason: Before blocking or archiving, consider adding a note to the person's record explaining why they left or had access revoked
• Review affiliations first: Before archiving a departed board member, use "Remove from Organization" to formally end their role and memberships with the appropriate end date
• Use filters to audit: Periodically review the Archived and Blocked filters to ensure your directory accurately reflects your current organization
• Blocking is reversible: Unlike deletion, blocking can be undone instantly if you need to restore access