--- title: "Governance Meetings Overview" description: "How a governance meeting runs in Talkspirit: the five sections of the Governance Meeting template, how proposals reach the agenda, and how the circle decides on each one." category: structure-governance section: meetings type: Tutorial lastUpdated: 2026-08-26 locale: en canonical: https://support.talkspirit.com/en/structure-governance/introducing-governance-meetings --- # Governance Meetings Overview ## Governance Meetings Overview A governance meeting is where a circle changes its own structure: the roles it holds, who fills them, and the working agreements it lives by. A tactical meeting uses the structure as it stands; a governance meeting is the place to change it. The circle works through one proposal at a time, and each one ends adopted or rejected. > **In summary:** Apply the **Governance Meeting** template and the meeting runs five sections in this order: **Check-in**, **Administrative Concerns**, **Agenda Building**, **Agenda** and **Closing**. Proposals reach the **Agenda** section as agenda items. Open one, present it, then adopt or reject it. ## What are the five sections? 1. **Check-in.** An opening round. Talkspirit lists the participants for you and you tick each person off as they speak, which is also where attendance is recorded. See [Tracking meeting attendance](/structure-governance/how-to-track-meeting-attendance). 2. **Administrative Concerns.** Short logistical matters worth saying out loud before the agenda starts. Free-form notes. 3. **Agenda Building.** The circle names the items it wants to work on, a couple of words each, before discussing any of them. 4. **Agenda.** The working part. Items sit under **Items to Process** and the circle takes them one at a time, moving each from **Pending** to **Discussion** to **Complete**. 5. **Closing.** A final round to capture how the meeting went. A stepper across the top of the live meeting shows the five sections in order and which one is open, so you can go back to an earlier one at any time. ![A live governance meeting titled Monthly Governance, marked Presenting with 35 minutes left and a Close meeting button. The stepper below reads Check-in, Administrative Concerns, Agenda Building, Agenda and Closing; the first three are ticked and the fourth, Agenda, is the current section. The Agenda section is open with the meeting notes, and the panel on the right lists two entries under Items to Process, the first marked as in discussion](/images/structure-governance/introducing-governance-meetings/01-live-governance-meeting-agenda.png) > **Note:** A lighter **Streamlined Governance Meeting** template also ships, with only **Check-in**, **Agenda** and **Closing**. Install either from **Meetings** then **Meeting settings → Templates → Browse gallery**, and a circle can add or drop sections in its own copy. ## How does a proposal reach the agenda? During the meeting, type the item into **Add an item** in the **Agenda** panel, open it, then click **Actions** and choose **New Proposal**. **New Election** does the same for filling a role. You pick the circle the proposal belongs to, and only the circles where you may take part in governance appear in that list. Work that already exists comes in the same way it does for any meeting: a proposal on the Proposals page offers **Bring to a meeting**, and a tension becomes an agenda item through **Transform into…**. Items you added earlier wait in your **parking lot** until **Import** pulls them into an agenda. ## What happens to a proposal during the meeting? Open the proposal and the screen splits in two: the proposal itself on the left, so it stays visible while you talk, and **Governance meeting steps** on the right. By default there are two steps, **Present Proposal** and **Decision**. The proposer presents, **Advance to next step** moves the proposal on, and then **Adopt** records the decision. **Reject** ends the process, and **Previous step** goes back one. The proposer can also **Withdraw** the proposal from the header. Adopting is what changes the organisation. A proposal carrying structural changes applies them to the circle at that moment, and a tension linked to the proposal is resolved at the same time. Nothing is applied before that point, so a rejected or withdrawn proposal leaves the structure untouched. ![A submitted proposal open during a governance meeting. On the left, its single evolution: a role update on Support adding the accountability Routing migration questions to the role that owns the answer. On the right, a panel headed Governance meeting steps lists Present Proposal, struck through as done, and Decision, marked Current, above an Adopt button with Previous step and Reject beneath it](/images/structure-governance/introducing-governance-meetings/02-proposal-in-governance-meeting.png) > **Note:** The controls on the right are shown to everyone viewing the proposal today, **Adopt** and **Reject** included. Agree in the room who is facilitating before you start. Your organisation can run the full round-by-round process instead. **Full validation workflow** replaces the two steps with **Present Proposal**, **Clarifying Questions**, **Reaction Round**, **Amend & Clarify**, **Objection Round** and **Integration**. An administrator chooses between the two in the Structure module, under **Structure settings → General → Decision settings**, in the **Proposals workflow in meetings** card. See [Decision Settings](/structure-governance/what-are-decision-settings). ## How do objections work? Objections belong to the full round-by-round process: the **Objection Round** is where they are raised, so you only meet them when your organisation has chosen **Full validation workflow**. There, **Raise an objection** opens the **Objection Assessment**: a short questionnaire that asks whether the proposal causes harm or moves the circle backward, whether that harm comes from the proposal itself rather than from something already there, whether the objection touches one of your own roles in the circle, and whether the harm is significant enough that it is not safe to try. If your answers suggest the objection does not meet those criteria, Talkspirit says so and explains why, and you can still choose **Proceed anyway**. Raising an objection does not stop the meeting: it records a blocker for the circle to test and integrate. ## Who can do what? Any participant can start the meeting, close it, and reopen it for a short while afterwards. Any participant can add agenda items. The notes belong to the **Note taker**, who can be changed at any point during the meeting. Creating a proposal is the one thing that is restricted: you must be a decision maker of the circle the proposal belongs to. Being an organisation administrator is not enough on its own. See [Decision makers in a circle](/structure-governance/what-is-a-decision-maker-of-a-circle). Which roles are filled by election is set per circle, under **Elected roles** in the circle's settings. The Facilitator and the Secretary are the usual examples, but the list is yours to define. ## What's Next? - [Restructuring a circle in a governance meeting](/structure-governance/how-to-restructure-a-circle-in-governance-meetings) - [Creating a proposal](/structure-governance/how-to-create-a-proposal) - [Voting on a proposal](/structure-governance/how-to-vote-on-a-proposal) - [Tactical Meetings Overview](/structure-governance/introducing-tactical-meetings) - [Meetings Overview](/structure-governance/meetings-overview)