Allotments 4 All

any ideas, please, thanks in advance  ;D

Or are you now committed?  Is this before you decide if you want the job 8) 8)  

to chair meetings

I'm not, just trying to find out what the duties are officially for someone else, so it's just to chair meetings, also for a casting vote if necessary?
not much else?

think thats it,technically,in my experience some lottie chair people are the most active committee member,whilst others take a back seat

The Chairman runs the meetings; the Secretary runs the Society; and the Treasurer keeps you all out of jail.

I'm not liking the last comment in your list there Trevor.....as association Treasuerer!

Our chairman does quite a bit, organising the rest of us to do stuff, though obviously we get on and do some stuff without reference to him!

IMO a 'good' chair keeps order at meetings, making sure all the items on the agenda get discussed and everyone gets their say and stays impartial when discussing matters. They would also work fairly closely with the Secretary drawing up meeting minutes, agendas and correspondence. Other responsibilities depend really on how the association is run, how strong the other personalities in the committee are, who does public representing work, recruiting new members, holding paperwork etc. Any well run committee should have some information of what being a chair involves, what previous chair's have done...kind of like a 'job description' for prospective applicants. This goes for any organisation run by a committee.

thanks for all the replies, I'll pass them on  ;D

Sazig hit the nail on the head.

Above all keep the meeting to an agenda, keep order and keep to your club rules. May sound daunting but enjoy it. Nothing wrong with a bit of humour but its the chairs responsibility to keep the meetings moving at a steady pace. Let one peron speak at a time and make everything go through the chair - ie. don't have members speaking to each other, have them and any replies communicate through you.

I would also add to ensure that everything being proposed is in the best interest of the members./constitution Committees have some great ideas but  it is the Chairman that will need to present them to the members at the AGM.

OC
PS And also to keep the peace  ;)

As it happens I reckon the Chairman's duties depend on the constitution of the allotments "society", as on our site - self managed from the local authority - I seem to be involved more than I originally expected.

The treasurer collects the rents and the lettings officer does the lettings. The secretary isn't involved much at all and issues minutes from the AGM, that's all.

I sometimes find myself having to chivvy the treasurer and lettings officer into doing their jobs, and warning letters regarding breaches of agreements only get there if they come from me. Other committee members just seem to think a chat is sufficient. They never seem to learn!

We are an expanding site - from 70 to 174 plots over the past 12 months, so maybe that's why I am more in the thick of things.

You certainly need someone to be the "public face" of the Society, and that's often the Chairman. (Although it's got a lot to do with personality and drive, plus availability.)

Like Delboy's site, we're expanding - although we've only got 90 members - and there's always a lot to be done. In our case, I'm the Secretary and my wife is Chairman, so a lot of the up-front stuff is done by us; but we've got a very active Committee who are on the ball, a very effective Site Manager and loads of members who are happy to volunteer when there are jobs to be done.

Old Central's comment is a good one as well: there's a lot of peacekeeping and diplomacy involved!

In our site chairman takes the back seat..and he act as referee as if/when needed..and of course is the 'chair' in the meetings..our secretary and treasurer (that's me)..we tend to do all the day to day stuff ..but with anything critical or complicated all three puts heads together..and we keep chairman up to date with latest gossip...
But that is our agreement how we do things..our 'chair' is the fountain of the knowledge of the things past..he knows everything about our deeds etc. and he's the one who deals or finds out things to with legal issues...