---
title: "Meeting permissions: who can do what"
description: "What you can do on a Talkspirit meeting follows from being its organiser, an editor, a participant, or a member who opened a Public meeting. The note taker edits like an editor, and your own agenda items are always yours."
category: structure-governance
section: meetings
tags: [permissions]
type: Reference
lastUpdated: 2026-10-13
locale: en
canonical: https://support.talkspirit.com/en/structure-governance/meeting-permissions
---

# Meeting permissions: who can do what


What you can do on a meeting follows from your relationship to it: you are its **Organiser**, a participant with the **Editor** right, a participant without it, or a member who opened a **Public** meeting without an invitation. Two things sit on top. The **Note taker** holds editing rights for as long as they hold the role, and an agenda item you created or present is always yours to edit.

> **In summary:** The organiser and the editors change the meeting. Every participant can start it, close it, bring agenda items and write the notes. An uninvited member on a Public meeting can read it and bring items, nothing more.

## Who you are on a meeting

| You are | How you got there |
|---|---|
| **Organiser** | You created the meeting, or the organiser handed it to you with **Make organiser**. Only the organiser can hand the role on. |
| **Editor** | You are a participant whose row carries the **Editor** right, the key icon in the participants list. |
| **Participant** | You were invited, directly or through a circle or a role, without the Editor right. |
| **Uninvited member** | You opened a Public meeting you were not invited to. A **Private** meeting shows you nothing. |

Guests never see a Public meeting: they take part only in meetings they are invited to. See [Meeting visibility: who can see and take part](/en/structure-governance/meeting-visibility).

Two more routes lead to the Editor's rights. The admins and the lead of the meeting's own circle, and of every circle invited to it, are editors automatically; their key icon is locked: *Circle admins always keep edit rights. To remove them, exclude them.* An administrator can switch this off under **Administration** › **Modules** › **Meetings** with **Circle admins and leads can edit their circle's meetings**. The other route is the note taker, described below.

## Permissions at a glance

| Action | Organiser | Editor | Participant | Uninvited member |
|---|:--:|:--:|:--:|:--:|
| Open the meeting, read the agenda and the notes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Public meetings only |
| **Start meeting**, **Close meeting**, **Reopen meeting** | Yes | Yes | Yes | No |
| Edit the meeting: title, time, visibility, template, recurrence | Yes | Yes | No | No |
| Add or remove participants, grant or remove the Editor right | Yes | Yes | No | No |
| **Delete meeting** | Yes | Yes | No | No |
| Add an agenda item, create an action item, comment on an item | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Reorder the agenda | Yes | Yes | No | No |
| Record attendance | Yes | Yes | No | No |
| **Make note taker** | Yes | Yes | Yes | No |
| Write the live notes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No |

Only invited participants answer the invitation with **Yes**, **No** or **Maybe**. A meeting cannot be deleted while it runs: *Meeting in progress. End it first to delete.* Once a meeting is **Completed**, only its title and description can still be changed; the agenda and the notes are frozen and the report takes over.

## The Editor right

In the **New meeting** dialog and in the **People** panel of an existing meeting, every person's row carries a key icon. Switch it on to make that person an **Editor**. An editor does almost everything the organiser does: edit the meeting, curate the agenda, add and remove participants, delete the meeting, and edit and publish the report.

For a circle or a role you invited, the key icon on its own row makes all of its members editors. The row also lists its exceptions: members you **Exclude**, and members whose own key icon differs from the group's. A person's own setting wins over the group's, and the highest right across every circle and role they belong to wins.

![The People panel of a scheduled meeting listing four invited people: the organiser and three others, with the key icon switched on for one person, whose row reads "Editor" and shows an "Editor" tooltip](/images/structure-governance/meeting-permissions/01-people-panel-editor-key.png)

## The note taker

The organiser is the note taker until someone else is named. Any participant can name another participant with **Make note taker** in the **People** panel. A visitor on a Public meeting can neither be named nor name anyone. While they hold the role, the note taker has the Editor's rights on the meeting, with one exception: they cannot add or remove participants unless their own row grants it. The note taker can also publish the report.

### Note taker only

By default every participant writes the live notes together, with or without the Editor right. An administrator can reserve them for the note taker under **Meetings** › **Meeting settings** › **Defaults** › **Meeting Notes Editing**, with the **Note taker only** switch. While the meeting has not ended, only the note taker and the organiser can then write; everyone else sees the notes read-only, under a banner naming who can edit them. Agenda items are not affected: other participants still add and edit their own items. Once the meeting is closed, the switch no longer applies and the report follows the rules below.

## Agenda items

You own an agenda item when you created it or you are its presenter.

| Action | Your own item | Someone else's item |
|---|---|---|
| Edit its title, presenter or duration | At any time | Edit rights, while the meeting runs |
| Edit its notes | At any time | Edit rights, while the meeting runs or once it is completed |
| Delete it | At any time, except while it is being discussed | Edit rights, while the meeting runs |
| Start, skip or complete it | While the meeting runs | Edit rights, while the meeting runs |
| Reorder it | Edit rights | Edit rights |
| Move it to another meeting | At any time, if you can add items there | Edit rights, if you can add items there |

Setting someone else as the presenter of your item makes them an owner too; you remain one as the creator. "Edit rights" here means the organiser, an editor or the note taker. Anyone who can add items can also comment on them, and edits or deletes their own comments only.

## Meeting reports

Closing a meeting creates its report. Your organisation decides whether it is **Published** straight away or kept as a **Draft**, under **Meetings** › **Meeting settings** › **Defaults** › **Reports on meeting end**, and the meeting form can override that default for one meeting.

After the meeting is closed, the organiser, the editors and the note taker edit the report and switch it between **Draft** and **Published** on the report page. A published report stays editable: publishing marks it as the official version and notifies the participants. An administrator can limit the editing period under **Report Editing Window** › **Editable for**, in days after the meeting closes. Past that limit nobody edits the content, the organiser included; the stage and the audience can still be changed. The default, zero, sets no limit.

A report is visible to the same people as its meeting, until the organiser or an editor changes **Visible to** on the report page. **Public** opens it to every member of the organisation. **Private** keeps it to the organiser, the participants, and anyone added through **Adjust**, which opens **Who can see this report**: add a person, a circle or a role to grant them the report, or remove a participant to withhold it. A person's own entry wins over their circle's. The note taker cannot change who reads the report. A report whose audience no longer matches its meeting is marked *Differs from the meeting*. The organiser can never be locked out, and anyone who can read a report can export it as a PDF. Guests read only the reports of meetings they take part in.

![The General card in the right rail of a report page: Visible to is set to Private, with an Adjust button next to it and the note "Differs from the meeting" beneath](/images/structure-governance/meeting-permissions/02-report-visible-to-private-adjust.png)

## Administrators

Being an organisation administrator grants nothing on a meeting by itself. The switch **Allow administrators to oversee all meetings and reports**, under **Administration** › **Modules** › **Meetings**, lets administrators see every meeting and report, Private ones included, without making them participants. On a meeting they can see, an administrator who is not yet an editor can choose **Join as editor** in the meeting header's actions menu. **Become organiser** appears there only when the current organiser's account has been deactivated. On a Private meeting the administrator is not part of, both actions need the oversight switch.

## What's Next?

- [Meeting visibility: who can see and take part](/en/structure-governance/meeting-visibility)
- [Scheduling, starting, editing, and deleting a meeting](/en/structure-governance/how-to-open-schedule-edit-or-delete-a-meeting)
- [Changing the note taker during a meeting](/en/structure-governance/how-to-change-the-secretary-during-a-meeting)
- [Closing a meeting](/en/structure-governance/how-to-close-a-meeting)