There is always a degree of mystique around the act of chairing a meeting. As a consequence, many perfectly competent people shy away from the opportunity to chair a meeting.
Good chairing can be learned. It is not unlike the role of an orchestra leader, whose only purpose is to bring out the best in all the players so that the audience can enjoy the music. The chairperson works to ensure that all members around the meeting table are able to effectively contribute to the decision-making process. This is really for one reason only-to ensure that the results of the meeting will positively contribute to the clients or community members that the not for profit or community organisation has been set up to serve.

The key to successfully chairing a meeting is to be absolutely clear about the purpose of the meeting. Once the meeting task is understood, it becomes easier to make the other decisions that may arise when chairing a meeting.

Building the agenda

1. To help develop an agenda for a purposeful meeting ask the following:
   -Are there any decisions that the meeting needs to make so that staff members can proceed in their work?
   -Are there any key administrative decisions that have to be endorsed?
   -Are there any matters coming out of the committees that are at a point where the full meeting has to take a decision on them?
   -Are all these items accompanied by clear recommendations for action?
2. Put any item that calls for energy and fresh ideas near the beginning of the agenda. Also put urgent items early on, in case the meeting has to break with unfinished business.
3. At the other end, don't make the agenda too long. Under no circumstances should a meeting run over two hours. After that people are tired and unproductive.
4. As a general rule, put time allocations next to items, more or less depending on their importance. Don't be obsessed with clockwatching, but you want to be able to give the important things the time they need, and you can't do that if you've frittered away the meeting time on trivialities.
5. You should also consider having alternate procedural meetings, where you hear reports and move motions and follow a regular agenda, and planning meetings, where you brainstorm and analyse and work on strategy.

The meeting papers

Documents to be included will provide background for the agenda items. Don't be tempted to include articles that may be of interest but will not really contribute to the meeting's outcomes. Participants tend to get swamped with paper and may actually end up reading none of it or leave out the pertinent pieces, so that they come to the meeting unprepared-which will make your role as chair that much more difficult.

Without being too pessimistic, an experienced chair is not surprised when participants have not read their papers, even if they are brief and relevant. Lack of knowledge about an item, never inhibits some people from loudly voicing their opinion or passing judgement and diverting the discussion. Your knowledge of the papers and the meeting's purpose, will assist you to calmly but assertively guide the participant to the relevant section of the papers to aid his understanding and bring the meeting back on track.

If there are unrelated articles of interest, organise a mailout at a later date or table them at the end of the meeting, so that participants can pick up copies on their way out of the room, if they so wish.

Meeting formalities

Have the committee sign off on the minutes of the last meeting. Only people who were at the meeting should vote on this point (a show of hands is sufficient). Minutes are the official record of the actions and decisions of the Board, and should not be taken lightly.

After this comes Matters Arising from the Minutes; this is an opportunity to check that the things that were planned at the last meeting have in fact been started by the people who were assigned to do them (a good Chair will have checked this over with the staff before the meeting). Make sure that this agenda item doesn't swallow up the rest of the meeting's business - nothing should be discussed under this heading if it comes in elsewhere on the agenda, and the Chair may have to cut people off quite often.

Reports

The Chair should have had a brief discussion with the Treasurer before the meeting to be sure that he or she is on top of the figures. It is definitely part of the responsibilities of the committee to satisfy itself that the organisation has adequate procedures to cover unexpected emergencies - enough insurance, a way of keeping an eye on cash flow and forward commitments, contingency plans.

If there's a report from the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) it comes in next. This is the opportunity for the committee and the staff to communicate. The CEO reports on background to the organisation's activities, for information only. If the issues involve any decisions from the meeting then they should be given their own place in the agenda and voted on separately.

If the committee has any subcommittees they should have a communication channel to the meeting, and this is where they come in. The sub-committee reports on its activities and brings recommendations and proposals to the full meeting.

Conduct Business

If there is a lot of routine business consider having a consent agenda ? that is, routine motions, such as to accept committee reports or approve expenditure, are starred, and will be carried automatically unless someone asks the Chair to move any of them to the regular agenda. This allows the meeting to concentrate on issues that are either important or new, or both.

Some important but complicated issues don't belong on the agendas of regular meetings unless they come with reports or specific recommendations for action.

This kind of issue is better handled at a special meeting (or a retreat) where you can focus on this issue alone and talk through all its aspects without having to break away and take up other business.

After you've handled all the business on the circulated agenda discuss any items that were brought up at the beginning of the meeting without notice, bearing in mind that if anybody wants more time to consider things you will probably need to put the question on the agenda of the next meeting.

Facilitating discussion

Ensure that everyone knows the rules of the meeting. Is it a formal or an informal meeting. Will decisions be made through consensus or will a formal voting procedure be followed? Whichever style of meeting is chosen and agreed upon, it is your role that consistency is maintained throughout the meeting.

As a chairperson you must remain neutral at all times. If there is an item on the agenda about which you feel strongly, ask someone else to take the chair for that agenda item so that you are able to participate more freely in the debate. Introduce each agenda item with a brief summary of the background to the item and then quickly pass on to someone else.

Ensure that everyone has an opportunity to speak, including people of non-English speaking background or who may have some disability that prevents them from jumping in and speaking quickly. Deal with diversity with patience and the meeting will reap the benefits.

Be democratic but stay in control. If someone, who for their own reasons, wants to dominate or divert the agenda, is derailing a meeting it is up to the chair to bring them to order. This has less chance of becoming personal and destructive if you can keep the meeting focused on the task at hand

No matter how rattled you may feel inside, keep the purpose at the forefront of your mind. Drop your shoulders, breathe evenly and speak in a calm rather low voice.
Try using the following.
"I appreciate your concerns, Lee. Time is short for this agenda item, let's return to the issue for discussion which is ..."
Or
"I'm afraid, David your issues are not able to be covered by this meeting. We have to move on to the next item/come to some resolution on this item. I will call you later this week to work out the most appropriate ways to deal with your concerns."
Acknowledge them by name, be polite and show that you are listening, do not put them down and move on.

A good chair practices active listening, is able to acknowledge speakers with appropriate facial gestures and clarify or summarise their points when necessary.
When a topic has been fully discussed, summarise the points and put it to the meeting for a decision or a vote.

If as chairperson you feel that an item is far more complex than previously thought. Do not just let it run over time. You have three possible ways to go here. You can:

• Extend the time for this item
• Refer the item to a working group for a report at the next meeting
• Set up an extraordinary meeting of the entire committee to deal with the item.

Whichever option you decide to take you will need to stop the discussion on the agenda item, summarise what has happened and ask approval from the meeting to carry out your option. If the item is causing too much "heat" without progressing forward, it is probably wise to choose one of the last two options to give people enough time to gather their thoughts.

Satisfactory conclusion