Leaving Boardwise

Boardwise is a custodian of your governance records, not their owner. When your organization decides to leave, our job is to hand custody back cleanly and then remove the data permanently.

This article walks through what happens, what you receive, and how to reverse course if you change your mind.

Who can begin a departure

Only an Organization Administrator can initiate a departure. The flow lives under Organization Settings → Configuration → Danger zone → Leave Boardwise.

You will be asked to type your organization's name to confirm — this is the standard fat-finger safeguard for irreversible actions.

Two paths

The flow adapts based on whether your organization has produced any governance records (announced meetings, issued consents, issued declarations or surveys, etc.).

If you have governance records

1. Initiate departure. Type the organization name, optionally add a reason, and confirm.
2. Receive your governance package. Boardwise prepares a complete export — meeting PDFs, all documents, signed consent PDFs, declaration and survey results, the full governance event log, and a directory of people. You will receive an email when the package is ready to download.
3. Confirm receipt. Once you have downloaded the package, return to the departure page and check the "I have downloaded our records" box. This starts a 60-day grace window before permanent deletion.
4. Grace window. A countdown banner appears across every page. You can cancel the departure at any time, in which case the organization returns to active status. We send one reminder email seven days before the scheduled deletion.
5. Permanent deletion. On the scheduled date, all records are deleted. A confirmation email is sent to all administrators.

If you have no governance records

If you have only set up the organization but never issued any consents, announced any meetings, or otherwise produced governance evidence, the flow is shorter:

1. Initiate departure. Same confirmation step.
2. Brief grace window. A 7-day fat-finger window begins immediately. You can cancel during this period.
3. Permanent deletion. Same confirmation email.

There is no governance package because there is nothing of governance significance to export.

What happens at the moment of deletion

• All organization data — meetings, documents, people records, governance events, comments, annotations — is permanently deleted.
• The organization slug becomes available again after the deletion record retention period expires.
• A small immutable record is kept outside the organization (the departure ledger). It contains the organization name, slug, who initiated the departure, when each step occurred, and any reason you provided. This is our receipt that we acted on a proper request — useful for both your auditors and ours.
• Your subscription should be cancelled separately through the billing portal before initiating departure.

What happens if I change my mind?

You can cancel the departure at any time before the scheduled deletion date.

• During the grace window, click Cancel departure on the departure page.
• All offboarding state is cleared and the organization returns to active.

Frequently asked

Can a non-admin start a departure?
No. Only Organization Administrators can begin or cancel a departure.

What if I notice I missed something during the grace window?
You can fully use the organization during the grace window — review records, download additional copies, contact members. If you discover the organization is no longer "trivial" because new governance activity occurred, the system automatically extends the flow to require an export package before deletion.

Is the export package the official record handoff?
Yes. Once you confirm receipt, custody of those records is yours. Boardwise no longer holds the originals after deletion.

Can my data be recovered after deletion?
No. The deletion is permanent and intentional.