Capitalisation of "co-chair" and "co-host"?

Question

We have the title "Chair" in our organization for functions. Our Education Chair wants a person of equal help in the form of a co-chair.

1) When listing these two people in a sentence:

Your new Education co-Chairs are Sue Y and Robert X....

Do I capitalize co-Chair, Co-Chair, or co-chair?

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2) What about a list of officers?

Sue Y, Education Co-Chair, Robert X, Co-Chair

These aren't in the beginning of a sentence. Do I capitalize co-Chair, Co-Chair, or co-chair?

Is it the same rule for co-Host, Co-host, Co-Host of an event?

Answer 1

Interesting question. Like many things, it's probably a matter of style. Chicago style is to not capitalise "co-chair" at all.

See: https://www.chicagomanualofstyle.org/qanda/data/faq/topics/Capitalization/faq0036.html

Answer 2

Google Ngrams are very helpful. The results for the search terms co-chair,cochair,Co - Chair,Co - chair,Coachair show that no capitalisation is the commonest form.

I would be tempted to capitalise for formal documents, or if the persons were the head of a company or organisation - as opposed to a small committee.

https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=co-chair%2Ccochair%2CCo+-+Chair%2CCo+-+chair%2CCoachiar&case_insensitive=on&year_start=1800&year_end=2008&corpus=17&smoothing=3&share=&direct_url=t4%3B%2Cco%20-%20chair%3B%2Cc0%3B%2Cs0%3B%3Bco%20-%20chair%3B%2Cc0%3B%3BCo%20-%20Chair%3B%2Cc0%3B%3BCo%20-%20chair%3B%2Cc0%3B.t4%3B%2Ccochair%3B%2Cc0%3B%2Cs0%3B%3Bcochair%3B%2Cc0%3B%3BCochair%3B%2Cc0%3B%3BCoChair%3B%2Cc0%3B.t4%3B%2CCo%20--%20Chair%3B%2Cc0%3B%2Cs0%3B%3BCo%20--%20Chair%3B%2Cc0%3B%3Bco%20--%20chair%3B%2Cc0%3B%3BCo%20--%20chair%3B%2Cc0%3B%3BCO%20--%20CHAIR%3B%2Cc0%3B.t4%3B%2CCo%20--%20chair%3B%2Cc0%3B%2Cs0%3B%3BCo%20--%20Chair%3B%2Cc0%3B%3Bco%20--%20chair%3B%2Cc0%3B%3BCo%20--%20chair%3B%2Cc0%3B%3BCO%20--%20CHAIR%3B%2Cc0