--- title: "Submitting and tracking a proposal" description: "Submit a draft proposal to your circle in Talkspirit, then follow it from Submitted to Adopted, Rejected or Withdrawn on the Proposals page." category: structure-governance section: proposals-and-decisions type: Tutorial lastUpdated: 2026-08-26 locale: en canonical: https://support.talkspirit.com/en/structure-governance/how-to-submit-and-track-a-proposal --- # Submitting and tracking a proposal ## Submitting and tracking a proposal Submitting is the moment a proposal stops being your draft and becomes your circle's decision. You submit it from the proposal's own page in the **Structure** app, and you follow it afterwards in **Proposals**, where every proposal sits in a status group from **Draft** through to **Adopted**. This article covers submission and everything that happens after it. To build the proposal itself, see [Creating a proposal](/structure-governance/how-to-create-a-proposal). ## Before you submit - You need to be a **decision maker** of the circle the proposal applies to. Talkspirit checks this when the proposal is created, and being an organisation administrator does not replace it. See [What is a decision maker of a circle?](/structure-governance/what-is-a-decision-maker-of-a-circle). - The proposal has to be a **Draft** and carry **at least one evolution**. Without one, **Submit** stays greyed out with the tooltip *Add at least one evolution before submitting*. ## How do I submit a proposal? 1. Open **Structure** in the navigation rail, then **Proposals**. 2. Open your draft. If it opens as a side panel, use **Open in full page** first: **Submit** is only shown on the full page. 3. Click **Submit**, in the top right. ![The full page of a draft proposal in the Structure module. The header shows a Draft badge, the proposal title, and a Submit button on the right. The centre lists one evolution card, and the right panel shows the circle, a description field and the Comments and Activity tabs.](/images/structure-governance/how-to-submit-and-track-a-proposal/01-draft-proposal-with-submit-button.png) 4. Confirm with **Submit proposal**. ![Confirmation dialog headed "Submit this proposal?" reading "Once submitted, the proposal will be reviewed by circle members", with a Cancel button and an orange Submit proposal button.](/images/structure-governance/how-to-submit-and-track-a-proposal/02-submit-confirmation-dialog.png) The badge changes from **Draft** to **Submitted** and the change set is frozen: evolutions can no longer be edited or added. **Note:** in the interface, **Submit** is shown only to the proposal's owner. If a colleague drafted it, ask them to submit it: a draft is visible to its author alone. ## What happens once it is submitted? That is decided by your organisation's adoption rule. An administrator sets it in **Structure settings > General**, on the **Decision settings** tab, under **Proposal adoption**. A circle can override it in its own settings, so check the circle before you predict the outcome. There are three possibilities: - **Proposals are not required for governance changes.** The proposal is adopted the moment you submit, and the change appears in the chart straight away. - **Proposals are required, adopted "Immediately".** Same outcome: submitting adopts it. - **Proposals are required, adopted "After N days, if no objections are raised".** A consent round opens. The circle's decision makers become the voters, you are recorded as a yes, a deadline is set, and everyone else is notified. Any one of them can object; if nobody does, the proposal is adopted at the deadline. **Note:** Talkspirit ships without an adoption rule saved. Until an administrator chooses one on that card, a submitted proposal simply stays at **Submitted**: no deadline, no voters, no notification and no vote buttons. If that is what you see, that setting is what needs changing. See [What are decision settings?](/structure-governance/what-are-decision-settings). ## How do I track a submitted proposal? Open it from **Proposals**. Its page carries everything you need: - The **status badge** next to the title, with the circle and the initiator beside it. - A **General** panel with the circle, the owner and the date it was submitted. When a consent round is running, it also shows the closing date and the days left. - A vote bar and countdown while a consent round is open, plus **Validate** and **Decline** for the members entitled to vote. - **Comments** and **Activity** tabs. Comments is where the circle asks clarifying questions and suggests changes, and it stays open until the proposal is adopted, rejected or withdrawn. Activity is the record of what happened and when. ![A submitted proposal open in the Structure module. The header shows a Submitted badge, the title, and a Withdraw button. The right panel lists the circle, the owner and the submission date, above the Comments and Activity tabs.](/images/structure-governance/how-to-submit-and-track-a-proposal/03-submitted-proposal-details.png) Only decision makers of the proposal's circle can vote, and that rule is enforced by Talkspirit, not just hidden in the interface. A single objection sends the proposal back to **Draft** for rework, with the objector's reason on the banner. If every voter approves before the deadline, it is adopted early. See [Voting on a proposal](/structure-governance/how-to-vote-on-a-proposal). ## Where do I see all of my proposals? **Structure > Proposals** lists them, filtered to **My proposals** and grouped by **Status** by default. Clear the filter to see everything the organisation has proposed. ![The Proposals list showing a My proposals filter and grouping by status. Three proposals sit in the Submitted group with columns for title, circle, evolutions, status, creation date, votes and initiator. Empty Clarifying, Reaction, Consent Round, Amending and Integration groups follow.](/images/structure-governance/how-to-submit-and-track-a-proposal/04-proposals-list-grouped-by-status.png) The groups run in lifecycle order: **Submitted**, **Clarifying**, **Reaction**, **Consent Round**, **Amending**, **Integration**, **Draft**, **Adopted**, **Rejected** and **Withdrawn**. **Group** and **Sort** let you organise by circle, initiator or creation date instead. ## How do I withdraw a proposal? While a proposal is **Submitted**, **Clarifying** or **Reaction**, its page offers **Withdraw**, next to the more-actions menu. ![Confirmation dialog headed "Withdraw this proposal?" reading "This action cannot be undone. The proposal will be permanently withdrawn and cannot be resubmitted", with a Keep proposal button and a red Withdraw proposal button.](/images/structure-governance/how-to-submit-and-track-a-proposal/05-withdraw-confirmation-dialog.png) Read that dialog before you confirm: withdrawing is final, and a withdrawn proposal cannot be put back into the process. What you get instead is **Copy to a new Draft**, on the banner of the withdrawn proposal, which recreates the whole change set as a fresh draft you can edit and submit again. ## Can I take a proposal into a governance meeting? Not an existing one. **Bring to a meeting**, in the proposal's more-actions menu, adds an agenda item that points at your proposal so the circle discusses it, but the proposal itself stays on the asynchronous track and is not decided in the room. A proposal is only decided inside a meeting when it is created there, from an agenda item of a meeting that is already running. See [Introducing governance meetings](/structure-governance/introducing-governance-meetings). ## What's next? - [Creating a proposal](/structure-governance/how-to-create-a-proposal) - [Voting on a proposal](/structure-governance/how-to-vote-on-a-proposal) - [What are decision settings?](/structure-governance/what-are-decision-settings) - [Introducing governance meetings](/structure-governance/introducing-governance-meetings)