Chairman's Staff

The position was first formally used at Noreascon Three (though people had occasionally informally served in that sort of position previously). The Chairman's Staff in neither a Vice-chairman position nor an assistant position, but follows the military/business model of "a body of officers without command authority, appointed to assist a commanding officer" or "a group of persons charged with carrying out the work of an establishment or executing some undertaking".

The role of Chairman's Staff is, along with the chairman, to form an Office of the Chairman which is more effective than the chairman could be alone. Chairman's Staff do not normally have any formal independent authority, but as they are usually very experienced individuals (frequently former Worldcon chairmen), they often have substantial clout in the organization.

Effectively using Chairman's Staff effectively is not easy, and requires substantial management maturity on the parts of both the chairman and the Chairman's Staff.

Note that Chairman's Staff is not (in spite of the name) related to staff, since Chairman's Staff normally has a major role in helping make policy.