---
title: "Changing the note taker during a meeting"
description: "Any participant can hand the note taker role to another invited participant from the Participants panel, before or during a Talkspirit meeting."
category: structure-governance
section: meetings
type: Tutorial
lastUpdated: 2026-08-05
locale: en
canonical: https://support.talkspirit.com/en/structure-governance/how-to-change-the-secretary-during-a-meeting
---

# Changing the note taker during a meeting


## Changing the note taker during a meeting
Open the **Participants** panel, point to the person taking over, and select **Make note taker** from their actions menu. The note taker is the meeting's writer: they can edit the notes, they can edit any agenda item and not only their own, and the reminder to close the meeting and publish its report goes to them. Any participant can reassign the role, as often as the meeting needs.

**Note:** the meeting **Note taker** is not the same thing as a **Secretary** role in your circles. A Secretary is a governance role your organisation defines and fills by nomination, for a term. The note taker is set per meeting and changes freely.

## How do I change the note taker?

1. Open the meeting.
2. Click the participant avatars in the meeting header. The **Participants** panel opens.
3. Point to the row of the person taking over, then click the three dots at the end of that row.
4. Select **Make note taker**.

![The Participants panel of a meeting, listing four invited people. The third row is labelled Note taker under the name, and the second row's three-dot menu is open on its only item, Make note taker](/images/structure-governance/how-to-change-the-secretary-during-a-meeting/01-make-note-taker-menu.png)

Their row now carries **Note taker** under their name. Once the meeting is running, everyone in it is told who took over.

![The same Participants panel after the handover. The second row now reads Note taker under the name, and the row that held it before shows no label](/images/structure-governance/how-to-change-the-secretary-during-a-meeting/02-note-taker-in-participants-panel.png)

## Who can be the note taker?

Any invited participant, whether or not they have joined yet. People who joined without an invitation are marked **Visitor** and cannot take the role: their menu says visitors can't be the note taker.

You do not need to be the organiser to reassign the role. Every participant can, which is what lets a meeting hand over the pen without waiting for the person who set it up.

If the note taker is removed from the meeting, the role returns to the organiser.

Starting, pausing, resuming and closing the meeting are not reserved for the note taker. Every participant can do those, so a handover changes who writes, not who runs the clock.

## Who is the note taker to begin with?

Whoever starts the meeting. When nobody has been assigned in advance, the member who starts the meeting becomes the note taker, so the pen sits with someone who is actually there. If the organiser starts it, the organiser holds it. An assignment made before the meeting starts is kept, and starting the meeting does not overwrite it.

**Note:** an administrator can restrict note editing to the note taker alone, in **Meeting settings → Admin Settings → Defaults**, on the **Meeting Notes Editing** card. When **Note taker only** is on, every other attendee sees the notes read-only during a live meeting, under a banner naming who can edit them. Adding and editing agenda items is unaffected.

## What's Next?

- [Adding an agenda item to an open meeting](/structure-governance/adding-agenda-items-to-a-meeting), what any participant can add once the meeting is running.
- [Closing a meeting](/structure-governance/how-to-close-a-meeting), what the note taker is reminded to do once the meeting is over.
- [Tracking meeting attendance in Talkspirit](/structure-governance/how-to-track-meeting-attendance), who counts as present and how that is recorded.
- [Meetings Overview](/structure-governance/meetings-overview)