--- title: "Adding or removing a member without a role from a circle" description: "Add someone to a circle without giving them a role, remove them again, and know what the two actions really change, starting with decision-maker rights." category: structure-governance section: chart-and-circles tags: [permissions] type: Tutorial lastUpdated: 2026-08-05 locale: en canonical: https://support.talkspirit.com/en/structure-governance/how-to-add-or-remove-a-member-without-a-role-from-a-circle --- # Adding or removing a member without a role from a circle ## Adding or removing a member without a role from a circle You can add someone to a circle without giving them a role. Open the circle, select the **Members** tab, and click **Add member**. To take them out again, use **Remove from circle** in the menu at the end of their row. One thing no screen tells you: anyone you add to a circle becomes a **decision maker** of it immediately, so they can create roles and open proposals there. It is on by default and the add dialog offers no way to switch it off. > **In summary:** circle, **Members** tab, **Add member** to add. The row's three dots, **Remove from circle**, to remove. Everyone you add can govern the circle until someone takes that status away. ## What you need Open the circle's **Members** tab and look for the **Add member** button. If it is there, you can add and remove members. If the tab shows only the list, you cannot. In the interface, that button appears when you are an administrator, when you hold a role that manages assignments in the circle, when you are an admin of that circle, or when your organisation lets all members assign. The server applies the same rule, so what the button offers you is what it will accept. Two starting states are wider than you might expect. A circle that has no circle admin yet can be managed by any of its members, and a circle with nobody in it at all can be managed by anyone in the organisation. This is deliberate, so that a new chart can be built at all. If your organisation has renamed circles or roles, you will see your own words in place of the labels below. ## Add a member without a role 1. Open the circle and select the **Members** tab. 2. Click **Add member**. A dialog headed **Manage members on** the circle's name opens. 3. Type a name in the **Search member** box. 4. Click the person in the results. They are added straight away, with no confirmation step, and their name moves into the **Assigned members** list below. 5. Repeat for anyone else, then close the dialog. ![The Manage members on Product Development dialog: a Search member box with the organisation's members listed below it, each ready to be clicked](/images/structure-governance/how-to-add-or-remove-a-member-without-a-role-from-a-circle/01-manage-members-dialog.png) They now appear on the **Members** tab with **No roles** in the Roles column, and they are notified in the app and by email: "You have been assigned to the circle", with the circle's name. Two other routes open the same dialog: - The circle's three-dot menu at the top of the page has **Assign member**. - On the **General** tab, the **Composition** panel lists the circle's roles and ends with a **No role attributed** row. Its three-dot menu has **Add member**. That row appears only once the circle already has a member with no role, so it cannot add the first one. ![The Composition panel of a circle: Product Manager and Developers, then a No role attributed row reading 1 member, with its three-dot menu open on Add member](/images/structure-governance/how-to-add-or-remove-a-member-without-a-role-from-a-circle/02-composition-no-role-attributed.png) ## What the person can do straight away Being added to a circle grants **decision maker** on it. That is the permission covering governance inside the circle: creating roles and sub-circles, editing and deleting the roles it holds, adding policies, and creating and voting on proposals. There is no setting for it in the add dialog, and nothing on the Members tab marks a decision maker, so the grant is easy to miss. If that is not what you intend, demote the person afterwards. On the **Members** tab, open the three dots on their row and choose **Set as Non-Decision Maker**. [Decision makers in a circle](/structure-governance/what-is-a-decision-maker-of-a-circle) covers what the status carries and who is allowed to change it. Demotion sticks. If you remove someone you had demoted and add them back later, they return demoted, because only a first assignment gets the default. Outside governance, the membership brings them into the circle's meetings as a participant. ## Remove a member from a circle 1. Open the circle and select the **Members** tab. 2. Open the three-dot menu at the end of their row. 3. Click **Remove from circle**. ![The Members tab of a circle: a member whose Roles column reads No roles, with their three-dot menu open showing Copy URL, Upgrade to circle admin, Set as Non-Decision Maker and Remove from circle](/images/structure-governance/how-to-add-or-remove-a-member-without-a-role-from-a-circle/03-members-tab-remove-from-circle.png) You can also remove someone from the **Manage members** dialog: the cross beside their name in the **Assigned members** list removes them at once, with no confirmation. ### What the removal takes with it - **Every role they held in that circle goes too.** Leaving the circle ends every assignment they hold inside it, in the same action. - **They receive one notification, about the circle.** The role removals it triggers are silent, so do not expect a message per role. - **Time spent** recorded against those roles is deactivated. - **They stop blocking open proposals.** If a proposal in the circle was waiting on their consent, they are dropped from the list, and it can complete without them. - **Their tasks are unassigned** on the boards they lose access to. - **Nothing that belongs to the roles is lost.** Purposes, domains, accountabilities, goals, metrics, checklists and working agreements sit on the role and wait for the next holder. - **Their decision-maker status in the circle ends with the membership.** ### Removing a role does not remove the membership The two directions are not symmetrical, and this is the part that catches people out. Removing someone from a **circle** removes their roles in it. Removing someone from their **last role** in a circle does not remove them from the circle. They stay a member of it, and they stay a decision maker of it, so they can still create roles and open proposals there. So if you mean to take someone out of a circle, take them out of the circle. Unassigning their roles one at a time leaves the membership, and its governance rights, in place. After a round of role changes, check the circle's **Members** tab: anyone still listed with **No roles** in the Roles column is in exactly that state. ## What's next? - [Decision makers in a circle](/structure-governance/what-is-a-decision-maker-of-a-circle) - [Assigning or removing a member from a role](/structure-governance/how-to-assign-or-remove-a-member-from-a-role) - [Circle Admins](/structure-governance/who-are-circle-admins) - [Configuring circle settings for my organisation](/structure-governance/how-to-configure-circle-settings-for-my-organization)