Who Has Seniority At A Formal Meeting?

[dazzler]

Put simply you are honouring the position, not the person in it.

[ian]

Brendon

do you have an agenda for your meeting?
what is the order of business?

Is Debus making a speech or just showing his face and shaking hands over tea and scones?
Ditto for your Federal member, Mayor, Councillors, Koperburg and Koenig

This will determine what happens.

For an AGM, the normal order of business would be

• Welcome
• Appologies
• Annual Report from the President
• Annual Report from the Secretary, Treasurer, Brigade Captain — shuffle this order as you see fit
• Special business as per the Notice of Meeting
• General Business, including any kind remarks that people might like to make. The speaking order (for kind remarks) would be:
  Debus,
  Federal member,
  Mayor,
  others,
  let Koenig and or Koperburg have the final word (but check first if they want to say anything). Koperburg in particular may just be there for the tea and scones — by which I mean to see the troops, he may not feel the need to make any formal comments
  If any of these people are to deliver a formal speech later in the proceedings, you wouldn't normally invite them to speak now.
• Elect the Office Bearers for next year, (the new terms to commence at the conclusion of the meeting or at some later time as per you "rules")
• Formal Address — have you requested any of your guests to make a formal speech? if not skip this bit
• Close or adjorn the meeting for the tea and scones (or an ale or two)

[boban]

Having read this thread I immediately thought that you have a humourous way to commence your speech.

Be honest. Tell them you had no idea who was to go first and tell them where you went for advice and recite some of it that was given.

I'd much rather listen to a humourous opening than one from a guy so nervous he hopes he gets the order of the w@nkers out correctly.

Good luck

[echnidna]

Great suggestion Boban

[masoth]

Some good advice/ideas/suggestions/tongue-in-cheek/republicisms to choose from.
'Official' protocol is, I suggest, important if for no other reason than funding, and sooooooooooo many of 'those' persons think they are delivering money from their own pockets.
Regardless of ANY list I'd keep the Firies to last (and say so) because that's your mob - the last mentioned stays in the mind of the listeners longer.
Point out the Firies ARE the reason for the gathering.

[ian]

Brendon

so how did the meeting go?

ian

[Felder]

The meeting actually went quite well, and it would seem that my angst over whom has seniority over whom was un-neccessary.

Allow me to set the scene;
Date - 2nd of June, 2006

1600hrs - attempt to leave Sydney Working With Wood Show an hour early to allow plenty of time for the one and a quarter hour trip back to the Blue Mountains. Wish to avoid peak hour traffic and have enough preparation time to ensure things run smoothly.

1645 - Leave show. It's raining. It's peak hour. Traffic is shyte.

1845 - Arrive at Fire Station completely frazzled. My brother tells me that Koperburg's office rang him an hour ago to offer his apologies for our meeting. Also, Debus cannot make it.

2000 - Meeting starts. I have an agenda and the minutes and everything is prepared. Koenig is there, along with four other RFS officers. One Councillor in attendance. I introduce the visitors from my right to left, completely disregarding any semblance of their rank. Took a leaf out of Boban's book and said something along the lines of "Welcome to our visitors. There is probably a correct order in which to introduce them, but from my right to left, here is ............." No-one seemed put out by this, so I must have done OK.
Just as I'd introduced the last visitor, another Councillor turned up so she got introduced as well. And then five minutes later I introduced Bartlett as he also turned up late.
We went through the agenda with awards being given (I got one! And no - not just because I'm the president) and reports being made. Elections took place (I got another twelve month sentence) and when the votes were being counted by RFS Officers, Koenig offered to make his speech. This was followed by another RFS speech and then I invited Bartlett to speak, followed by the Councillors (the one that was there on time got to speak first!).
All in all, the meeting was a success. I was nervous as all hell beforehand but I'm not sure why - I'm usually not so bad at public speaking. Koenig said it was a well run meeting so that's good enough for me.

Of course the best bit was after the meeting. I do enjoy a good tea and scones session ( , , )

Thanks to all for your advice and suggestions. It was certainly beneficial!!