Presenting the American Flag Correctly – Meeting Planning 101
Are you a proud American? If so, do you know how to present an American flag in your meeting?
Let me tell you the correct way and also what not to do. Last week I attended a convention and got to the meeting room early. Since I coordinated meetings for many years, I always look at the setup in each room, especially the presentation of our flag.
Correct presentation – first, the American flag always goes stage right, as you are looking out from the stage or audience left as you are looking at the stage.
Example of a “Bad” presentation – when I arrived in the room, the flag was presented in the worst possible manner. It was stage left and was hung upside down.
Before I had a chance to correct it, a friend of mine got with another person and took the flag down, carefully folded it the correct way and laid it on a six foot table. Then he notified hotel staff that the flag needed to be rehung correctly on the flag pole and left the room.
However, when the hotel staff person walked into the room, she unfolded the flag, dragged it on the ground and started to attach it to the flag pole. Another proud American in the room said something to the employee about dragging the flag, so she stopped, placed the flag on a nearby six foot table and was starting to, again, attach it upside down. At that point, I stepped in and informed her the blue section with stars goes on the top and once done, the flag pole and flag goes stage right.
She stopped again, left the room and brought in another setup person to help her finish the job. Once the flag was properly on the pole, he placed it correctly on stage as I had informed them.
The next day I walked into the same room and the flag was on the wrong side again. Needless to say, I am a proud American and I moved it to the correct spot. To add insult to injury, I was informed that the facility charged $25.00 for use of the flag.
The American flag must be displayed in a specific manner, but it really is not too hard to at least get it on the flag pole correctly and place it on the correct side of the stage. So, I ask again, are you a proud American? If you are, please make sure that it is displayed correctly.