--- title: "Roles in Talkspirit" description: "A role in Talkspirit describes a piece of work through its purpose, domains and accountabilities. Members are assigned to it, and one role can have several holders." category: structure-governance section: roles-and-assignments type: Reference lastUpdated: 2026-08-05 locale: en canonical: https://support.talkspirit.com/en/structure-governance/role-overview --- # Roles in Talkspirit ## Roles in Talkspirit A **role** is the smallest unit of work in your organisation's structure. It does not describe a person's job. It describes a piece of work: why it exists, what it may decide, and what it is expected to deliver. People are then assigned to it. One person usually holds several roles, and one role can be held by several people at the same time. Roles live inside circles. For what a circle is and how the two nest, see [Circles in Talkspirit](/structure-governance/circle-overview). ## What a role page contains Open a role from the chart, from the **Circles & roles directory**, or from the role list on its circle's page. The **General** tab holds the role's governance content: - **Purpose**: why the role exists. - **Domains**: what the role owns and may decide about on its own. - **Accountabilities**: the ongoing results the role is expected to deliver. - **Policies**: the rules the role has published about its domains. Those four are the **core fields**. Every role has them and you cannot remove them, but an administrator can rename all four for the whole organisation, so your own role pages may use different words. Below them sit your organisation's own **custom fields**: text, dates, numbers or lists that an administrator adds once and every role then carries. A custom field can be marked as governed, in which case the role page offers **Propose changes** instead of an edit control. See [Editing core and custom governance fields](/structure-governance/how-to-edit-core-and-custom-governance-fields-for-roles-and-circles). ![The General tab of a role, with cards for Purpose, Domains, Accountabilities and Policies](/images/structure-governance/role-overview/01-role-general-tab.png) The role's remaining tabs are **Members**, working agreements and **Attachments**, which holds files and links attached to the role itself. Metrics, checklists, Projects, Goals and Meetings follow, each appearing only if your organisation has that feature switched on. ## How someone comes to hold a role Assignment happens on the role's **Members** tab, through **Add member**, and ends with **Unassign** in the member's row menu. Who may assign is an organisation setting: it can be limited to designated assigner roles, or opened to every member. See [Assigning or removing a member from a role](/structure-governance/how-to-assign-or-remove-a-member-from-a-role). Two other routes exist. A role whose actions menu has been set to **Mark as hiring** shows an **Apply** button, so a member can put themselves forward. A role marked as electable is filled by an election instead, and the winner's assignment carries a **Current mandate** with an **End of mandate** date. See [Holding an election for an elected role](/structure-governance/how-to-hold-an-election-for-an-elected-role). A role has no holder limit. When several people hold it, the role list shows their avatars and a member count; when nobody holds it, the role reads **Vacant**. ![The Members tab of a role, with one holder listed and the row menu open on Edit scope, Unassign and Copy URL](/images/structure-governance/role-overview/02-role-members-tab.png) **When a holder leaves, the role stays.** Only the assignment ends. Unassigning someone, suspending them, or deleting their account removes them from every role and circle they held, and the role they vacate becomes **Vacant** with its purpose, domains and accountabilities untouched. Removing someone from a circle also unassigns them from every role they held inside that circle. ## Main roles Some roles are marked as **main roles**. A main role is pinned to the top of the role list in every circle it belongs to and carries a **Core** badge. Only a main role can be made an assigner. Main roles are set by an administrator at organisation level, by ticking a box on a role template, so a single circle's settings list them but cannot change them. Talkspirit ships **no named set of main roles**. If your organisation has roles called Lead Link, Circle Rep, Facilitator or Secretary, somebody created them, and they are ordinary roles that may or may not be marked as main. Facilitator and Secretary appear in the product only as examples, in the help text for elected roles and in the role-template name field. See [Main roles and the Core badge](/structure-governance/understanding-core-roles). ![A circle's role list, with the first role carrying a Core badge and shown as Vacant](/images/structure-governance/role-overview/03-main-roles-core-badge.png) ## Roles that reach further than one circle Two related concepts have their own articles. A **cross-circle role** is an existing role invited into another circle so that it can take part there; it appears in the host circle marked as invited. See [Cross-circle roles in Talkspirit](/structure-governance/cross-circle-roles-overview). A **role template** is a reusable blueprint you apply when the same role is needed in several circles. See [Role templates overview](/structure-governance/role-templates-overview). ## Who can change a role In the interface, the actions on a role page (**Edit**, **Mark as hiring**, **Move role**, **Extend role to a circle** and **Delete**) appear only if you can take part in governance in the role's parent circle, which in practice means being a decision maker of that circle. **Add member** follows the assignment setting instead. If your organisation routes governance changes through proposals, the page offers **Propose changes** in place of direct editing. ![The actions menu of a role, listing Copy URL, Add member, Add stakeholder, Edit, Mark as hiring, Move role, Extend role to a circle and Delete](/images/structure-governance/role-overview/04-role-actions-menu.png) Being an organisation administrator does not by itself let you create a role or a proposal inside a circle: that needs a decision-maker assignment in the circle concerned. ## What's next? - [Decision makers in a circle](/structure-governance/what-is-a-decision-maker-of-a-circle) - [Adding a role or a circle](/structure-governance/how-to-add-a-role-or-a-circle) - [Seeing my roles](/structure-governance/how-can-i-see-my-roles) - [Attachments on roles and circles](/structure-governance/adding-attachments-to-roles-and-circles)