Chairing Libri GmbH Chairing Your First Meeting Paperback

You've just been asked to chair your first meeting - or take the minutes for one - and you have no idea where to start. Robert's Rules of Order sounds like a maze of jargon invented for lawyers and career committee members, not for a first-time volunteer, student, or board member who just wants to run a fair, organized meeting without embarrassing themselves.Chairing Your First Meeting was written to fix exactly that problem. It's a step-by-step, hold-your-hand guide that walks you through parliamentary procedure in the exact order you'll actually experience it: preparing before the meeting, calling it to order, handling motions and debate, running a vote, keeping control when things get tense, closing the meeting properly, and writing minutes that actually hold up afterward.Every chapter gives you word-for-word scripts you can read almost verbatim during your first few meetings - no memorization required - plus a plain-English explanation of the "why" behind each rule, so you understand the process instead of just following it blindly.What's inside:- A complete, chronological walkthrough from pre-meeting prep to post-meeting minutes- Ready-to-read scripts for calling meetings to order, handling motions, running votes, and closing out- Clear explanations of motions, amendments, seconds, quorum, and voting thresholds in plain language- Tools for handling difficult moments: interruptions, points of order, appeals, and tense debates- A complete motions cheat sheet, sample agenda, sample minutes, and a full sample meeting transcript- A two-week countdown plan and chapter-by-chapter checklists to build real confidence before your first meetingPerfect for first-time chairs, secretaries, and members of student governments, school and parent committees, clubs, homeowners' associations, nonprofit boards, and neighborhood groups who have zero parliamentary experience and don't want to fake it. As a bonus, the appendices include a nominations-and-elections walkthrough, an illustrative sample bylaws template, and a glossary you can keep on hand at every future meeting.