Board chair's authority

The chair’s authority and responsibilities:

• Starting and ending the meeting on time.
• Setting a positive tone for the meeting.
• Preserving order.
• Moving the meeting along by adhering to the agenda.
• Keeping discussion centered on the issue.
• Allowing all sides of an issue the opportunity to be heard.
• Treating all board members fairly and equally.
• Understanding basic parliamentary procedures.
• Bringing issues to a conclusion.

Interpersonal skills are important to your position:

• Encourage - Be friendly and responsive to others; accept others' contributions.
• Mediate - Identify areas of compromise, recognize differences of opinion and ideas, and conciliate.
• Monitor - Make sure all board members participate. Limit discussion by those who dominate. Keep the discussion on the issue.
• Set standards - Promote professionalism, establish rules of conduct, model ethical behavior.
• Initiate – Suggest new ideas, propose new activities, encourage creative thinking.
• Seek information - Ask for relevant facts and data.
• Clarify - Probe, restate, define discussions, identify points of agreement.
• Test - Check to see if the board is ready to take action.
• Relieve tension - Know when to defuse conflict and repair wounded feelings.
• Summarize - Review the discussion, defining its content. Bring out important points. Identify needed actions.