I think the concept of elders is good - do think that it would be better if the host could pick a chair rather than defaulting to elders from the start, though. Maybe we could use 5 elder members as a back-up system in case no chair is picked (and there really should have been one) and the elder can hand out strikes and guide the meeting. If a host picks a chair, however, it could be any council member of their choosing, regardless of elder status.
Unrelated to the elder status and chair business - I would like to do a mayor activity check on Aravero. I miss her, as I'm sure we all do, but I'm starting to think that River Bend really needs an active mayor. I ran around the other day and found a few breaches of the River Bend rules, as well as various other miscellaneous tidbits (blocks taken out for example - I had to replace a lot of end rods) that were not as it should be.