I remember an evening I spent with a large governing body some time ago. All my attempts to get them to talk had failed so I decided to cut my losses, cover the agreed topic and then hightail it out of there. In passing, I referred to the election of chairs - suddenly a voice from the silence said: “Could you repeat what you just said?”

I repeated the trigger phrase. “You mean....we can choose a different chair if we want?” I explained the customary process. Another pregnant pause.

“And...we can change the chair every year?” It was a moment of revelation which jolted the whole group into life. Questions came thick and fast. The room filled with new possibilities. It turned out that they had had the same chair for 13 years and no one had ever realised they could get rid of him. The strange thing was that he was not there but his baleful presence pervaded the whole meeting - until that blinding flash.

An unusual tale, thank goodness. In fact, the problem is usually the opposite - not how to get rid of a chair but finding someone to fill the role in the first place. Who needs the extra responsibility and workload?

The work of an ordinary governor is demanding enough to put off people who might otherwise be effective board members. That is even more true of the role of chair. There are few outstanding chairs of governors in my experience but many do a competent job. They often remain in the post long after they really want to because nobody else is prepared to do it.

What would happen if your chair resigned tomorrow? Would the vice-chair take over - and do a good job? Would anyone know what to do if no one was prepared to stand? Would you stagger from meeting to meeting, swapping the chair each time until you ran out of people?

Or maybe you have realised that more than one potential chair is waiting in the wings? Electing your next chair must be a democratic process, yet there is nothing to stop you from encouraging more than one of the current governors to develop the necessary skills and attitudes. Let’s look at some of the options.

What exactly does your vice-chair do? This role is often a ceremonial post but has the potential to be so much more.

I know of one governing body where the answer to the problem of no volunteers was to treat the vacancy as a job-share. That is illegal, strictly speaking, but, if pressed, one is the chair and the other the vice-chair. For this to work, there must be excellent communication and trust between the two people. But even if the vice-chair took on a third of the chair’s workload, it would make the job so much easier and encourage more to consider taking it on.

Also, our committees are scaled-down versions of the full governing body - so committee chairs are potential board chairs. Do we give them positive feedback on how they do the job? The governing body can do so much to encourage “promotion from within” but more often than not it’s a missed opportunity. We’re so relieved some other sucker has volunteered we don’t give any thought to how we might help them to develop in the role. Everyone’s just too busy.

We could take the pressure off by expanding the group. What about others in the community who haven’t got the time to be full governors but might be prepared to contribute to a committee? How hard do we try to recruit them? If we had more members, maybe we could take some pressure off other colleagues....and that might just give them the space they need to take on a chairing role.

Succession planning deserves to be high on your agenda. It is an investment in the smooth continuity of the board, eliminating lurches and bumps as members come and go. We’re constantly told we must be more strategic: it’s what succession planning is all about.

David Marriott is head of governor support at Wiltshire County Council and author of The Effective School Governor, published by Network Educational Press Ltd (01785 225515)