Board Jurisdiction Settings: Record What Your Board Says It Follows
Target keyword: board jurisdiction settings
Intent: Informational / How-to
Last updated: 2026-10-05
Reading time: ~8 minutes
Who this guide is for
Chairs, corporate secretaries / clerks, and admins who need one place to record where the board is organized and which governance mechanics the board says it follows — so quorum lines, written consent, and officer-election checklists can say "per board settings" without pretending to be counsel.
This is practice guidance, not legal advice. Prepared Board does not file with any Secretary of State, does not connect to ASPA, and does not certify statutory compliance. Your bylaws, charter, and counsel control.
The problem this solves
Boards already store operational knobs (authorized seats, quorum base, notice days, written-consent unanimity). What was missing was a declared jurisdiction profile: state/country, entity type, and a free-text quorum rule source the board itself enters (bylaws cite or statute cite as the board's words).
Without that profile:
- Quorum UI correctly says "a count, not a legal opinion" — but investors still ask "under which rules?"
- Officer-election checklists list seats and board-copy annual reports — but not the jurisdiction the clerk files under
- Diligence and board-proof packs omit a one-line "where is this board organized?"
What to record (board-declared only)
| Field | What the board writes | What Prepared does not do |
|---|---|---|
| Country / state | Free text (e.g. United States / Maine) | No live SoS lookup |
| Entity type | Free text (e.g. Nonprofit 501(c)(3)) | No tax-status verification |
| Quorum rule source | Bylaws cite or statute cite as board text | No statutory opinion engine |
| Written consent allowed | Yes / No / Not declared | No ASPA engine; in-app consent ≠ DocuSign |
| Notice days | Calendar days the board says it follows | May mirror Settings notice days |
| Annual meeting month | Month or season (free text) | Not a ballot engine or filing deadline feed |
Prefill, when empty, mirrors existing Board columns (board type label, notice days, bylaws quorum sentence, consent defaults). Prefill is still labeled board settings — never Prepared's advice.
Where it appears
- Settings → Jurisdiction profile (
/app/settings#jurisdiction-profile) — Chair / Admin / Owner edit /app/jurisdiction-profile— same profile with strip + editor for editors- Read-only strip on
/app/board-proof,/app/diligence, and/app/officer-elections— jurisdiction + quorum rule source + link to edit; always footnoted
Everywhere the strip appears, copy says per board settings and repeats: not legal advice; Prepared does not file with the state.
How this relates to quorum, consent, and elections
- Quorum: Meeting headers still show Present/Remote vs seats required — a count, not a legal opinion. The jurisdiction profile only labels the rule source the board declared.
- Written consent: In-app consent signatures remain Prepared Board records, not third-party eSign certificates. The profile's yes/no is the board's stated practice.
- Officer elections: The annual meeting / officer election checklist stays a checklist record — not a ballot engine, not a Secretary of State filing. The strip adds jurisdiction context (e.g. Maine) next to a Maine annual-report board copy when that document exists in the seed.
How Prepared Board handles this today
Per Facts and /agent-facts.json:
- Jurisdiction profile is stored on
Board.settingsJsonfor that board only - Edit roles: Chair, Admin, Owner
- Surfaces: Settings hash, dedicated app page, strips on board-proof / diligence / officer-elections
- Demo: Piscataqua Harbor Trust is seeded with Maine / Nonprofit 501(c)(3) / bylaws quorum sentence: "A majority of trustees in office is a quorum."
- Not live: ASPA, live filing feeds, Secretary of State connections, SSO/SCIM/WebAuthn in the demo
Related task guides: How to count quorum, How to run written consent, How to run board officer elections.
Try it: Piscataqua Harbor Trust (Maine)
Piscataqua Harbor Trust is a seeded nonprofit land trust in Kittery, Maine (demo only — not a live filing).
| Sign in | a sample board (see /sample-decision) / password123, or pick Piscataqua at Try a board |
| Open | Settings → Jurisdiction profile or Jurisdiction profile |
| See | Maine · United States · Nonprofit 501(c)(3) · bylaws quorum source |
| Also see | Strip on Board decision quality proof, Diligence snapshot, Officer election checklist |
| Pack (public) | /pack/demo-pack-piscataqua-fall |
Honest limits: shared demo password is not SSO; the Maine annual-report document in the book is a board copy, not a live Secretary of State feed; seat counts remain counts, not legal opinions.
Board-type guides
Related decision-task guides
- How to Count Quorum at a Board Meeting
- How to Run Written Consent
- How to Run Board Officer Elections
- Quorum and Notice Requirements
Conclusion
Record jurisdiction as board-declared settings, show them where investors and clerks look, and keep the honesty line: Prepared surfaces the declaration; counsel and the state filing (done outside the product) own the legal effect. Try Piscataqua above, then verify every product claim on Facts.