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A good chairperson comes armed with a topic.
He or she has a "hit list," a list of people that they know can be counted on to bring the meeting back around to topic if it strays.
A good chairperson knows who they are going to call on first and call on last.
Here is how it works at my home group:
A prospective chairperson is asked a week in advance by the secretary to chair. That way he or she has a week to pick a short passage from the Big Book (title page thru page 164) to use as the meeting topic.
Chairperson gets to meeting early and reviews topic with secretary to see if it has been used recently. We actually keep track. After that, chairperson starts to make a list. We have greeters at the door and you sign in as you come in. About ten minutes before the meeting starts, greeters bring full sign-in sheets to chairperson to use. Chairperson is instructed to actually use the sign in sheets. That way old-timers and visitors will be called on. During the meeting, the secretary can point out visiting members that have a strong message as well. We do not acknowledge AA sobriety anniversaries until the last Tuesday of the month. No "burning desires" are allowed.
We have an actual group conscience in hard copy about how to chair our meeting. First off, only home group members who have been a group member for at least one year and have taken the steps with a sponsor from the group can chair the meeting. The group conscience instructs the chairperson to call on a strong group member to start the meeting and then to call on a group member at least every third person. Chair people do not share. They simply read a short passage from the book and start calling on people.
We have a roster person who keeps track of which group members get called on from week to week and which group members are present from week to week. At the beginning of the meeting, he hands the chairperson a list of group members. The ones who have not shared recently are highlited and it is strongly recommended that the chairperson call on these people. The way it works is that it keeps the personalities out of it, because the same people are not called on every week, and if you are a group member you know you will be called on at least once every three weeks.
As a result, our meeting is always focused and on topic.
Jim
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