What's a governance meeting?

Governance is about the structure of your circle, this is where you can create and adapt the roles that capture the work that needs to be done.

Every circle runs its own governance meetings. The governance meeting is less frequent than the tactical meeting and is about working on the organization (organizational development). A facilitator guides the consultations according to a tight schedule.

Specifically, in a Governance meeting you can:

• Create, remove, or edit the Roles of the Circle
• Create, remove, or edit the Policies of the Circle
• Elect people to the elected core roles of the Circle (Facilitator, Secretary, and Rep Link) or other roles depending on your organization set up.
• Restructure the circle, i.e. move one role to another circle.

What's the process?

Governance meeting includes 3 steps:

• Check-in: gives a chance for everyone to expresses themselves, say how they are feeling, call out what is on their mind, before diving into the agenda. It is also possible to check the participants list.

• Agenda: where the majority of the meeting takes place. Members can add issues to resolve one at a time through proposals and build the meeting agenda.

Each person that has a tension during the governance meeting makes a proposal that aims to solve it. Through a process of integrative decision-making, we look whether the proposal is a step forward for the organization. We make sure that it does not put us backwards and it is not harmful. Everyone has a voice and can bring an objection to the proposal if they have one. An objection is valid if it meets several criteria. The proposal becomes a decision if it is workable for everyone.

Step by step, organizations undergo a continuous evolution.

• Closing: provides space for everyone to share their feedback on the meeting.

Updated on: 14/08/2025