FOR CONGREGATIONS AND THEIR CLERKS
The annual meeting,
done properly.
The notice, the agenda, the sign-in sheet, the quorum, the vote on the budget and the officers, and the minutes afterwards. One place, on paper when the congregation wants it.
Keep your church management system. This is the meeting and the vote, which is the part it does not do.
$348 a year for a congregation of up to 50 voting members, which is $29 a month. Send us your membership list and we set it up on the phone.
THE CONGREGATIONAL MEETING KIT
Six steps, and paper at every one of them.
A congregational meeting is a meeting, plus a vote, plus the members who could not be in the room. All three are here.
§ 01
The notice
Set the date of the annual meeting and the notice goes to every member on the roster, with a permanent record of what went out, to whom and when. Where your state publishes a structured rule for the organization you are, we show the window and the citation beside the date.
Your bylaws decide the notice period for a congregation, and they win over any default we would suggest. We never tell a congregation that its notice was sufficient.
§ 02
The agenda and the packet
The agenda is a list of items, not a paragraph: the report, the motion, the budget, the election of elders and deacons. Documents attached to the meeting travel with the notice, so the congregation reads the budget before the room fills rather than after.
§ 03
The sign-in sheet and the quorum
The sign-in sheet prints from your roster with a signature line, a column for the proxy holder and the quorum line at the bottom. RSVPs are tracked ahead of time so the clerk knows before the day whether the meeting will be quorate.
Proxies are counted in the room, on the printed sheet. Counting a proxy toward the quorum automatically is not built yet, and we would rather say so than let a clerk assume it.
§ 04
The vote
The budget, the bylaw amendment and the election of officers run on the vote.direct election engine: a verified list of eligible members, a secret ballot, and a tamper-evident record of the result. Where your bylaws allow proxy voting, a holder can carry ballots up to the cap the bylaws set.
§ 05
Members who cannot be there
A member with no email address is on the roster the same as everyone else. They can be sent a printed letter carrying their own credential, or a full ballot packet with postage both ways so nobody has to buy a stamp. Both land in the same tally as the votes cast online.
§ 06
The minutes and the record
The agenda becomes the minutes: attendance, quorum, the discussion, each motion with its mover and its count, and the action items. Publishing files them into the congregation's record where next year's clerk can find them, and prints them for the notice board.
KEEP WHAT ALREADY WORKS
Breeze is the benchmark. We are not trying to replace it.
A church management system holds the people, the groups, the volunteers, the service planning and the giving. That is a real product doing real work, and we do none of it.
Breeze and governance.center, side by side
Breeze publishes one flat rate with giving included and no limits by church size. Its pricing page names no congregational meeting, no business meeting and no vote, which is exactly the seam this product sits in. The comparison carries its published price and the date we read it.
Read the comparison
What we ask you to move
Nothing. Send us the list of voting members for the meeting. Giving stays where it is, the directory stays where it is, and the service plan stays where it is. When the annual meeting is over you have the notice, the sign-in sheet, the tally and the minutes in one record, and nothing else changed.
ONE PRICE FOR THE CONGREGATION
Billed once a year, and every band gets everything.
Priced by how many voting members you have, not by how many elders or deacons touch the software. Nothing is tier locked.
Ask for an invoice and send a check if that is how the church pays. Many congregations cannot put a card on file at all, and that is a normal way to buy this.
ELDERS, DEACONS AND TERMS
Who holds which seat, and when the term ends.
- Seats are named and held: elder, deacon, clerk, treasurer, with the term dates the bylaws set and a vacancy shown as vacant rather than as a blank.
- A term ending is a date on the congregation's calendar, so the meeting that elects the replacement is called in time rather than remembered late.
- Members see who is on the board and what they hold. Contact details are shown only if the congregation chooses to show them.
WHAT WE DO NOT DO
The limits, before you find them.
A congregation that discovers a limit for itself stops believing the rest of the page, so here they are first.
- No payment processing. Dues and assessments are marks in a record. The money moves between the member and the association, never through us, and no bank account is connected to this software.
- No violations. There is no violation notice, no fine ladder and no hearing tracker here. If your board needs one, say so on the phone and we will tell you honestly whether it is coming.
- No work orders. Maintenance requests, vendors, bids and work orders stay with your management or accounting software. We run the governance year, not the property.
- No legal advice. Where we quote a statute we say it is our reading, to support your review, not legal advice, and we tell you to have your attorney confirm it before the board acts. We never tell a board that it is compliant.
- No inspector of elections in California. Cal. Civ. Code 5110(b) disqualifies anyone under contract to the association for other compensable services, and the association pays us for the software. California boards get a published directory of independent inspector firms instead, and we take no part of their fee.
Church governance is set by your own constitution and bylaws, and in many states by the nonprofit corporation act your congregation is incorporated under. Our reading, to support your review, not legal advice. Confirm with your attorney before the board acts. We never tell a board that it is compliant.
QUESTIONS CLERKS ASK
Answers, before you have to call.
Does this replace our church management system?
No. Breeze is the membership and giving benchmark for a church, and most congregations that buy us keep it. Breeze holds the people, the groups, the volunteers, the service planning and the giving. We do the part its pricing page does not name: the congregational meeting, the vote and the minutes.
What does it cost for a congregation?
$348 a year for a congregation of up to 50 voting members, which is $29 a month, billed once a year. Larger congregations pay more only because they have more members, and every band gets every part of the product. Ask for an invoice and send a check if that is how the church pays.
Can members vote by proxy or in absentia?
Where your bylaws allow it, yes. The ballot carries proxy voting with a cap on how many ballots one holder may carry, and a member who cannot attend can be mailed a printed letter carrying their own credential or a full ballot packet with postage both ways. Your bylaws decide whether either is permitted; we do not.
Do members need an account or a password?
No. A member gets a link and the link opens their own page and their ballot. Nobody creates a password and nobody installs an app. The clerk and the officers who administer the workspace do sign in.
Is the vote secret?
It can be. A congregational vote can be run as a secret ballot, where the record proves who was eligible and that they voted once, without ever attaching a name to a choice. It can also be run identified, when the bylaws call for a recorded vote. That is a decision the congregation makes before the ballot opens, not afterwards.
Does it tell us whether our meeting was properly called?
No. Your bylaws and your state law decide that, and your attorney confirms it. Where we quote a statute we say it is our reading, to support your review, not legal advice. We never tell a congregation that it is compliant.
Can you set it up for us?
Yes. Send us your membership list and we set the congregation up on the phone in one sitting, including the first meeting and its notice. Call or text (512) 222-8191. There is no charge for that call.
NEXT
Where to go from here.
Print a proxy form
The proxy for a members' meeting, for congregations whose bylaws allow one. Fill it in and print it.
Get the template
Print a sign-in sheet
Paste your member names and print the sheet with signature and proxy columns and the quorum line. Nothing stored.
Open the sign-in tool
Read the price
The whole ladder, the annual number first, and what is not in it.
See every band
Read the limits
No giving, no payment processing, no legal advice, and we say so before you find it.
What we do not do
THE SHORTEST WAY IN
Send us your membership list. We set the meeting up on the phone.
No form to fill in first, no demo to sit through, and no charge for the call.