Roster CSV guide

Upload a CSV of everyone expected at the meeting. As people join, RollCall Live classifies each participant against this list as Voter, Observer, Guest, or Unmatched.

Required columns

Use a single full-name column called Name — not separate first_name / last_name columns (those won't match correctly). Any extra columns you add (for example Region or Chapter) are kept and shown alongside each person.

Example

Name,Email,Role,Region,Chapter
Alex Rivera,alex.rivera@example.com,Voter,West,A
Jordan Lee,jordan.lee@example.com,Voter,East,B
Sam Patel,sam.patel@example.com,Observer,West,A
Casey Nguyen,casey.nguyen@example.com,Guest,East,B

Download this sample CSV

Accepted role values

Voter, Observer, or Guest (case-insensitive; plurals like Voters are fine). Any other value is kept as a label, but only Voter / Observer / Guest are counted as role distinctions. A blank role shows as Unmatched until you assign one on the board.

How matching works

• Email is matched first. If a participant's Zoom email matches a roster email, they're classified even if their display name differs — so include emails wherever you can. It's the most reliable match.
• Otherwise the full name must match exactly (case-insensitive, but not fuzzy). "Alex Rivera" matches "alex rivera", but not "Alex Rivera (Host)" or "Alex R." Keep roster names consistent with how people appear in Zoom.
• Anyone not matched shows as Unmatched — you can correct them on the board in two clicks, and the change is logged.

Quorum columns (optional)

If your governing documents count proxies or mailed ballots toward quorum, or bar some members from voting, add any of these. They are all optional, and a roster without them counts exactly as it always has.

Name,Email,Role,Eligible,Proxy,Ballot
Margaret Chen,meg@example.com,Voter,Y,,
Robert Ellis,rob@example.com,Voter,Y,Margaret Chen,
Dinah Okonkwo,dinah@example.com,Voter,N,,
Sam Reyes,sam@example.com,Voter,Y,,Y

Robert isn't attending, and Margaret carries his proxy. Dinah is in arrears. Sam mailed a ballot. If Margaret is on the call, three of these four count toward quorum.

Nobody is ever counted twice. A member who turns up in person after sending a proxy counts as present, and their proxy stops counting. A member with both a ballot and a proxy counts once.

Proxies are live. If a holder carrying several proxies leaves the meeting, those proxies stop counting immediately and the quorum figure drops — which is the point. Quorum has to be maintained, not just reached.

Two things we deliberately don't do: we don't follow proxy chains (if A's proxy is held by B and B's is held by C, A does not count through C — most declarations prohibit this), and by default someone who isn't eligible to vote can't hold a proxy for someone else.

Check every one of these against your own declaration or by-laws. Quorum rules differ by jurisdiction and by organization, and the board reports the composition — the chair declares quorum.

Column headers are flexible

The name column just needs to contain "name" (or "member", "owner", "resident"); email needs "email" (or "e-mail"); and the role column can be titled Role, Distinction, Type, Category, or Status. If your file has no header row at all, the first three columns are read as Name, Email, Role in that order.

The quorum columns above are matched exactly, not loosely — Eligible counts, Ineligible does not, because reading that one backwards would silently raise your quorum figure. Weight also accepts Vote weight, Unit factor, Ownership, and Share. Columns called Units or Votes are deliberately left alone, since those usually already mean something else in an existing roster.

When you upload a file containing any of these columns, RollCall shows you exactly which columns it read and what it will do with them before anything is loaded.

You don't have to do it all in the CSV

Proxies arrive late — often the morning of the meeting — so you don't need to re-upload your roster to record one. Click Proxies & roster on the board, search for the member, and type who holds their proxy. You can also mark eligibility and ballots there, and paste a whole list at once as member, proxy holder pairs, one per line.

Changes take effect immediately, including in the middle of a meeting, and each one is written to the attendance log with a timestamp — so a proxy recorded at 7:15 PM is explicable afterwards.

Tips

• One row per person; remove duplicate rows before upload.
• Prefer a single Name column that matches people's Zoom display names.
• Use lowercase emails where possible.