Charing a Meeting

It can be easy and rewarding to chair a meeting of San Francisco Pride, be it a meeting of the Board of Director, a sub-committee, or even the Annual General Meeting (plenary session). Below you will find some helpful tips, relevant policies, and example agendas and scenarios.

Meeting Policies

San Francisco LGBT Pride has a number of policies and guidelines that are relevant to the meetings. Some of these policies are listed below.

Chair Can End Meeting
A.03 "Standing Rules", Section IX (Standing Rule #9)
Each and every meeting of the organization shall have a chairperson appointed to run the meeting and such person may at any time for any cause whatsoever and at her/his absolute discretion adjourn such meeting.
Secret Ballots If Requested
A.03 "Standing Rules", Section XII (Standing Rule #12)
It shall be the policy of this corporation that the chair of any meeting shall honor any request from any member for a secret ballot rather than a show of hands for purposes of voting.

Standard Agenda Items

1. Call to Order
The Chair (usually the President or other designated officer) calls the meeting to order by saying "[I] call this meeting of the San Francisco LGBT Pride Parade and Celebration Committee to order at" and noting the time.
2. Acknowledgement of Unceded Raymatush Ohlone Land
The Chair calls for somebody to read the land acknowledgement.
3. Roll Call
The Chair might call for meeting participants to introduce themselves, or they might call for the Secretary to call roll, so long as there is an accurate account of who has attended the meeting.
The Chair should note if the meeting is quorate or not.
Seven of thirteen Board members are present, and so we have attained quorum.
This meeting is inquorate so we cannot transact any official business, but those of us gathered here can still have discussion.
4. Appointment of Meeting Roles
The Chair may appoint or call for volunteers for a number of meeting roles, at the Chair's discretion:
  • timekeeper - tracks time alloted to individual discussion items
  • vibe watch - watches the tone of the conversation and speaks up when things get off track. For example, they might (politely) interrupt to make sure someone who hasn't spoken gets a turn, or they might interject when they can see the group is avoiding a conversation they need to have.
  • stack monitor - tracks the queue of speakers, and those wishing to make a public comment at the end of board meetings.