Chair - pros and cons

[misshardbroom]

I've been asked to be Chair of ds1's playgroup committee - in principle I'm happy to do it because I think the playgroup is great and I don't want to see them left in the lurch when the current Chair leaves (she's moving out of the area).

But... I wondered if anyone who is already a Chair could outline the pros & cons of taking it on.

The bits that concern me are:

1. If you're part of the committee responsible for decisions such as staff wages, does it get awkward then when the same staff are responsible for the care of your child?

1. Where do you stand legally (on a personal level) if there are any complaints about the care of a child, or if a child was injured while at playgroup?

1. How much of your time does it really take up in practice?

Anything else you can tell me would be really useful.

In our area the local council provides a lot of support and training for preschool committee members, plus the staff at the playgroup are fantastic and really experienced, but I don't want to agree without really understanding what it entails.

Things like staff wages are usually aggreed beforehand and you would normal just review the wages annually.
Yes, sometimes it can get awkward but also you have to think of the budget.
Things like complaints will firstly be dealt with by the nursery manager, if it escalates then it would be a whole committee problem and they should help you come to a solution.
Being a chair mostly entails guiding the meetings and making sure everyone has a say, keeping to the constitution and maximising the budget.
I think people don't like doing it because you have to be comfortable with speaking to all sorts of people and also the Chair and the committee are all responsible for any action Ofsted takes against a setting.
If you look back on the threads you will read about lots of other chairpeople talking about their experiences,
We've only just managed to find a chairman for our setting and we were VERY close to closing for good....would have been today if he had not turned up