How to chair a PCC meeting

You should know the rules and conventions (and be able to distinguish between them!).

Plan the agenda carefully. What order of items would be most fruitful? For example, you could put a couple of quick easy wins first. If there is a major controversial item, where will that be on the agenda? What will be before or after? Don't leave important urgent matters to the last 5 minutes when everyone is tired if you want to make the best decisions.

 Sometimes you might take a break durring a meeting or pause to pray about something.

 You might put possible timings on the agenda either for your own use or for the whole PCC. Sometimes you might say "I think we ought to move on", "Let's come back to this next time, next year etc.", "Why don't you and I discuss that after the meeting, Dave", "Jenny, if you put down some specific proposals we'll ask the Standing Committee to take a look at them, shall we?".

Generally speaking the chair should ensure that only one person speaks at once and that people know who has the floor.  Of course there could be times to break into pairs or groups or ask people to write down their thoughts.

Sometimes you might go round the table and ask everyone to speak if they will. You might also invite anyone who hasn't yet contributed to speak. You might ask people by name what they think, especially if they have some kind of involvement or insight into the issue.

The chair might have a role in ensuring good manners, no one should be rude or disrespectful or swear or fight or spit. The chair may also wish to challenge errors of fact or failures of charity. For example, if someone impugns someone's motives one might say "but we can't make windows into men's souls" or if someone is not there to defend themselves you might say "but I imagine Betty would have a different version of events." As ever you should be cautious about "everyone thinks" and "people are saying". 

Sometimes the chair may need to keep people on task though general philosophical discussions have their place. You might ask if someone wishes to propose a motion. You might propose one yourself.

The business of the PCC needs to be suffuciently prepared, but they won't like it if they feel everything is stitched up and they are just a rubber stamp.

Sometimes the chair might need to check that something has been minuted - or not!

The chair should also take care to flag up anything especially confidential.

The feel and mood are important. You want people to have confidence in your fair chairmanship even when you feel very strongly about something. You don't want to chair the meeting like an oppressive tyrant. Relationships are important as well as business.

For some items you might offer to or insist on resigning the chair or even leave the room.

I strongly reccomend that you establish some standing orders or conventions e.g. any items of Any Other Business must be notified to the Chair at least 48 hours in advance of the meeting; all meetings will end at 10pm if not before whatever the state of discussion. It is probably also good to have a rule about not voting on the same issue say for another year.

You should probably begin and end the meeting with prayer and maybe a Bible reading and a short talk or thought - though this is not the place for political speaches. It is an abuse to use the opening devotions to tell people how to vote on motion 4b unless the Bible is very clear on the matter.

You should think about when, where and how often you want to meet. Do you set the dates for the whole year? Do you varry the day of the week for people who always go to choir on a Tuesday?

Business will tend to expand to fill the time available. Think carefully about how often you need a finance or building report. What are the reports for?

Sometimes you might have different kinds of meetings: PCC prayer meeting, Bible Study, Review Meeting, Planning Meeting, Mission Action Plan meeting, Away Day, Vision Day etc.

Sometimes you might get in an outside speaker or fascilitator.