SteadyState for community colleges
Board of trustees software for community colleges
Community college boards answer to state auditors, and the answer is only as good as the record. SteadyState puts every approval on a locked record with the vote attributed to the trustees who cast it, inside the Microsoft 365 the college already runs.
A typical college board in SteadyState
Seven elected trustees, a chair and vice chair chosen from their own number, a clerk who keeps the record, and a president who sits at the table without a vote. The board meets monthly; Finance and Audit and the Policy Committee meet the week before, and routine items ride the consent agenda in a single motion. SteadyState records which body decided what, on what date, with the vote attached and the follow-up owned.
A year of decisions
6 decisions, oldest first| ID | Decision | State | Date |
|---|---|---|---|
| DEC-2026-002 | Award a construction contract not to exceed $1,450,000 | Approved | 14 Jan |
| DEC-2026-005 | Adopt the FY operating budget and in-county tuition rate | Approved | 11 Feb |
| DEC-2026-009 | Adopt board policy 3.10 on second reading | Approved | 11 Mar |
| DEC-2026-012 | Appoint a vice president of academic affairs | Approved | 8 Apr |
| DEC-2026-016 | Approve an associate of applied science in cybersecurity | Approved | 13 May |
| DEC-2026-019 | Approve change order #2 on the campus roof replacement | Submitted | 10 Jun |
The problems this solves
Auditors keep finding the same gap
A 2026 forensic audit at a Texas community college found a contract renegotiated and increased with nothing showing in board minutes. A New York state comptroller audit found senior positions created without written board authorization. Both findings trace to the same gap: board approvals that existed only in email and memory.
Board business has a shape
First readings, consent agendas, resolutions. The gaps open when that shape is reconstructed afterward from minutes. SteadyState records the approval when it happens, with each trustee's vote attributed by name and the record locked on approval.
How it fits
- Keep BoardDocs for publishing
- If BoardDocs or Diligent Community publishes your agendas and minutes, keep it. SteadyState is the decision layer underneath: the vote itself, locked, with follow-up actions tracked to completion. The comparison guide covers when you need which.
- Ready for the auditor
- Every approval is a locked record with the vote attributed to the trustees who cast it. Changes happen as amendments, voted and recorded like the original, so the answer to how something was approved is a record rather than a search through email.
- In the college's own tenant
- SteadyState installs into the Microsoft 365 environment the college already runs. Records stay under your existing security, backup, and retention policies.
What it costs
Most boards run five to nine trustees, so the board alone sits under the 10-seat minimum. The working set is trustees plus the president's cabinet, the board clerk, and committee members – usually 12 to 20 seats. Fifteen seats comes to $300 a month at the public rate of $20 per user per month. Each seated user also needs Power Apps licensing from Microsoft, about $5 per user per month. The full math is on the pricing page.
Questions boards ask
- Is SteadyState a replacement for BoardDocs?
- Usually it runs alongside it. BoardDocs publishes the meeting; SteadyState governs the decision. A smaller board without publishing obligations can run SteadyState alone. The comparison guide has the row-by-row detail.
- Does SteadyState publish to the public?
- Not in v1. Outcomes are visible in the app to everyone with access, and optional Teams notifications can push them out. Boards with a public-portal obligation keep their publishing tool for that job.
- How do we document board approvals for auditors?
- Each decision shows who was eligible, each trustee's recorded vote, and the locked outcome. Amendments link to the original, which stays in the register marked superseded.
- How does SteadyState handle first and second readings of board policy?
- Each reading is its own recorded vote. The first reading is a decision in the policy committee or the board; adoption at the next meeting is a second decision, and both are locked, each with its own recorded vote.
- How does voting work in SteadyState?
- Each body sets its own policy – unanimous consent, majority of votes cast, or two-thirds – so the board and its committees can run different rules. Trustees approve, reject, abstain, or recuse, and the chair or clerk can record an absence against a name. The tally is stamped on the locked record when the vote closes, and a rejection requires a written reason.
- Does SteadyState replace our board clerk or assistant secretary to the board?
- No. The vote produces the approval record, so the clerk reviews and maintains the register rather than writing it up from notes afterward.
See it before you decide
The demo walks a decision from draft to locked record, including what happens when someone tries to change it after approval. It takes a few minutes and runs in your browser.