The chairperson introduces him-/herself and welcomes everyone to the meeting while he asks everyone to sign the attendance register by way of introducing themselves to the channel bot Maaz.
eg: Maaz: I am Gustav H Meyer
http://maaz.mene.za.net/logs/meetings/freenode-%23ubuntu-za/2012-06-18-17-30-01.txt
The chair gves a brief background about procedures and makes a few announcements or allows somebody to talk on his behalf.