What I’ve learned about chairing in meetings (Zoom version)
- Be prepared: read the script well in advance and ensure I can navigate it accurately.
- Do dry runs to ensure that the various passages to read and tasks to perform are well understood. Make sure I can pronounce all the words, including names of authors quoted or anything else I might stumble over because of bad grammar or punctuation.
- Before the meeting starts, ensure that, at my end, there are no animals caterwauling, no children or dependents who need attention, no phones about to ring, no deliveries about to arrive, and no other distracting noises or activities in the background. Turn off the radio / television even before the meeting starts.
- Be emotionally composed. If weepy, distressed, or hopelessly distracted, I let someone else handle the meeting.
- Pick competent co-hosts.
- Be present at the meeting well in advance of the start-time. I don’t show up two minutes or thirty seconds before it starts; others will only start running round trying to find alternative cover.
- Line up readers well in advance of the meeting starting. Best to voluntell people known to be competent rather than to allow unknown quantities to come forward. Open up for general volunteering only as a last resort.
- Make sure the readers understand what they’re supposed to do and have all the materials available in front of them.
- If a volunteer is non-committal, doesn’t understand the service, doesn’t have the reading, etc., thank the person for their offer and move on swiftly.
- Start precisely on time, to the second.
- Pay attention whilst reading the script: don’t get lost. If in doubt about getting lost, I practise.
- If I stumble, I find my place or repeat the sentence in question, and plough on: I don’t self-comment, apologise lavishly, explain, defend, or try to manipulate other attendees’ impression of my performance. Anything other than just continuing will make it worse, so I don’t try. It’s about the service, not about me, in any case. I’m not auditioning.
- I do not introduce extraneous material other than the very occasional and pithy aside. I just read the script. In particular, this is not an opportunity to narrate my feelings, my week, my life pressures, etc. No need, either, to communicate my reactions to the script, the format of the meeting, or recent group conscience decisions.
- If, unexpectedly, I lose composure or attention half way through, for any reason, I swiftly pass the baton to someone else and recompose myself or sort out the problem. I don’t battle on through the emotional or other impediment; this isn’t Chekhov at the London Palladium. If I’m able to return later, invite the person who stepped into the breach to continue if they wish; I’m not entitled back.
- If someone’s sound is awful or jumpy, I mute them, thank them, and ask them to fix their audio or Internet connection and raise a hand later if they manage to sort out the audio or Internet problem; move on swiftly; don’t spend precious meeting time going back and forth with ‘We can’t hear you!’ and ‘Is that better? Can you hear me now?’
- Do not comment on people’s shares beyond thanking them. If I compliment one person, I’m insulting all those I didn’t compliment. Treat everyone the same. Thank people in exactly the same way or not at all.
- Finish on time. Do not apologise to anyone who doesn’t get to share: I didn’t design the format, and it’s not my fault they were slower than others to raise their hands. I don’t ask the group’s permission to close the meeting: the group has already given me permission by entrusting me with the role.
What I’ve learned about volunteering in meetings (Zoom version)
- If I don’t know the format of the meeting, I don’t volunteer.
- If I don’t know precisely what is involved, I don’t volunteer.
- If I don’t have the reading in front of me already, I don’t volunteer.
- If I don’t know precisely where the reading starts or stops, I don’t volunteer.
- If I do volunteer, I do so clearly; I don’t hedge with ‘if’-statements, apologies, insecurities, etc., e.g., ‘… if no one else minds’, ‘if no one else volunteers’, ‘unless someone else wants to read’. I don’t create or add to confusion. Excessive courtesy hampers progress, like people unable to navigate a door because no one wants to go first. Seize the opportunity firmly or not at all!
- I don’t counteroffer a different form of service than that which is offered, e.g. breaking up the reading, reading extra, reading a script from a different group (that literally gets offered), reading something different from the same book, reading a reading from a different book, etc.
- If attendees are asked to share, I share. I don’t shoehorn in a reading instead.