Docs

The council thread

Update the council about a card or project, discuss a contractor's message with the council without the contractor seeing it, and reply to the council only from an email notification.

Council only

Updated

What it is

Every card and project can have one council thread: a conversation for the council only, in the card's Conversation tab. Use it for status updates and for discussing the work before anyone answers a contractor. No one outside the council ever sees it.

  • Every active council member is in it and gets an email for each post. Members who join the council are added at the next post; members who leave stop getting it.
  • Anyone in it can answer by replying to the email, or in Pleno.
  • It's made the first time someone posts. A draft card has none: publish it first.

Votes stay out of it. "I approve" in the council thread is a message like any other: Pleno never reads a post as a vote. Decisions go through the card's council vote, which reaches every member who votes.

Posting from Pleno

  • Update council is in the card's ⋮ menu, and at the top of the Conversation tab until the card has a council thread. Once it has one, write in the thread's Update council box.
  • Discuss with council is under every message in a contractor's conversation. It quotes a little of the message, and your post shows beside that message in the contractor's conversation, under Council discussion, as well as in the council thread, where Show the message takes you back to it. The contractor never sees either.

Posting by email

  • To your Pleno address. Email your strata's Pleno address with the card number in the subject (MNT-042, [MNT-042] or MNT 42) and no one outside the council on the To or Cc. Your email becomes your post on that card's council thread, and Pleno sends it on to the other council members. Anyone you put on the To or Cc already has it, so they aren't sent it again. Files that came with it are filed in the card's Documents. Pleno emails you to say it was posted.
  • Reply to a council thread email. Your reply goes to the council.
  • Reply to council only. Every email about a contractor's conversation has a Reply to council only link as well as Reply. Reply answers everyone in the conversation; the link starts an email to the council thread, about that message, which the contractor never sees.

Your email to the Pleno address is something else in these cases, as before:

  • "note" in the subject (Note MNT-042: met Phoenix on site) adds it to the card as your note.
  • A forward of a contractor's own mail goes into their conversation (see Forwarding a contractor's own mail), and a forward of anyone else's mail is added to the card as a note, as before.
  • Someone outside the council on the To or Cc starts or joins a conversation with them (see Starting a conversation from your mailbox).
  • Pleno posts to the council only mail it can confirm came from your address (your email service's DMARC or DKIM check). Otherwise, or while the strata's account is read-only, your email is added to the card as a note, and Pleno's email to you says why.

Who can do it

  • Every council member can post to the council thread, from Pleno or by emailing your Pleno address with the card number (not during the 90-day read-only overlap after a term ends, nor while billing makes the account read-only).
  • A reply to a council thread email, or to Reply to council only, is always filed, as replies in a contractor's conversation are, whatever the account's billing. One from someone in the read-only overlap waits for approval.
  • You can mute the council thread's emails with Watching, like any conversation.
  • Residents never see it.
  • During a support session, Pleno staff see who posted and when, never what was written.

See Permissions by role.

Limits and things to know

  • The council thread is on every plan.
  • Pleno doesn't read a council post for quotes or card details, on any plan. To have Pleno read a contractor's quote, forward their email to your Pleno address, or add the quote by hand.
  • Files on a post by email are filed as a contractor's would be: documents and photos, up to 50 MB an email.
  • A Reply to council only email starts a new email, so your email program doesn't quote the contractor's message in it. The post still says which message it's about.
  • Someone in the read-only overlap after their term still gets the emails of a council thread they were already in, but what they send is held for approval. Their emails about contractors' messages have no Reply to council only link.