The female emcee was wrong. An open mike is exactly that.. an OPEN mike. It's not an invitational. The rules should be specific, the same for everyone and every guest should be treated with respect.

A good host is supposed to get her own ego and opinions out of the way and make sure things run smoothly and fairly.

I've hosted LOTS of open mikes in my life and these rules have worked like a charm:

1) First come, first pick i.e. you don't HAVE to go first if you come first... you can pick third. Most people don't want to go first and shouldn't be punished for being first to sign up. After the first three or four have sorted it out, it tends to go in order of arrival.

2) Everyone gets the same number of songs 2, 3 or 4 depending on the number of performers.

3) The host wanders around as the night progresses giving warning to every performer that they're up after the next one or two performers to give people a chance to be get their instruments tuned and their nerves under control.

4) If there's still time to play after everyone's played, anyone who chooses to stick around can go again in order of the first round.

5) The host opens with the same number of songs as everyone else gets. Their job is to be the sacrificial lamb, to establish the live music thing to make everyone else comfortable. I've seen too many hosts do an entire 45 minutes to one hour set and then give everyone else four songs. The night is NOT about the host. It's about the guests.

6) Every guest should be thanked for coming and made to feel welcome. It's not about talent. If it was about talent, then a talented professional act should be HIRED. Sometimes, there's talent at open mikes but it's an OPEN MIKE for heaven's sake. If you don't like who shows up, don't throw open mikes.

Those are the rules I've used and they've always worked like a charm. There are countless other ways to organize it depending on the situation. A listening open mike in a folk club is different than a corner open mike in a bar but the important thing is to make fair rules and stick to them. The rest takes care of itself.