The chair presides over the HOA annual meeting or any deliberative assembly. The chair conducts the meeting and is responsible for the orderly opening, progression and completion of the meeting. In short the chair is in charge of the meeting. The chair can also be referred to chairperson, chairman, chairwoman, presiding officer, president, and moderator.
The specific chair duties can included:
– Calls the meeting to order
– Determines if the meeting quorum is achieved
– Announces the agenda items
– Allows recognition or assignment of the floor to members
– Enforces the rules of the assembly
– Puts all seconded motions to a vote
– Adjourns the meeting
The chair should set the pace and the tone of the meeting. The HOA annual meeting should be called to order on time and be adjourned at an efficient pace. This pace should adhere to the rules of the assembly and completion of the meeting objectives. However, the chair must value everyone’s time and be as efficient as possible. The tone of the meeting should be nothing less than business like. Causal banter should be left for another time.
Chair Key Points:
– Under no circumstances should the chair deviate from the meeting agenda.
– The chair should not relinquish the floor until the appropriate points in the meeting such as the elections or the officer reports.
– Allowing others to interrupt the meeting and have the floor can derail the entire meeting.
– Once the chair relinquishes the floor, they should not interrupt a member who is following the rules of the assembly.
– In most instances, a member of the assembly must be recognized by the chair before they can enter into debate or make a motion. There are exceptions to this, please reference Robert’s Rules of Order.
The most common mistakes meeting chairs make:
– The chair deviates from the agenda. Thus the chair is “out of order.”
– The chair allows members to interrupt the meeting without calling that member down for being out of order.
Chairing an HOA annual meeting is not a popularity contest, the chair must maintain control or risk derailing the entire meeting.
Copyright 2018 William Douglas Management, Inc.