Back in September, I was elected substitute to sit on the church council in the place of any full member of the parent representatives parent who could not attend a meeting. A lady asked me a couple of weeks ago if I could replace her for the next meeting. The meeting was last night. It was great to be present and observe the  proceedings.
The whole protocole is interesting. While in the UK, people who arrive would come in and sit down after giving a general greeting to those already present, in france, those arriving at the meeting go around the room shaking hands to every single person already present. If they know each other well enough, they would do “la bise”, but men always shake hands.
Most of the teachers were there, as well as the mayor and  other representatives of the town council. I think the total number was about 18. Various subjects concerning the running of the school were talked about. It was interesting to know better what’s going on in the school and to meet knew people as well. The meeting was about 2 hours long.