Some stuff about running meetings:

Meetings should always have a written agenda and a clearly stated amount of time that will be spent on each agenda item. There should be a facilitator, a scribe, and a time-keeper. The chairman of the committee should probably facilitate the first meeting, but after that try taking turns at all the tasks. This will keep everyone involved in a variety of ways, and make sure they all know the problems involved in facilitating a meeting. You can still be firmly the leader of the group while someone else is running the meeting. In fact, it's better for you that way as it allows you to concentrate on the work and the people, not on keeping track of the agenda.

The facilitator's job is to keep the discussion on track and to make sure you move through all the items on the agenda. Early on in the process you should get everyone on board with the concept of getting interrupted by the facilitator if they go off-topic. The scribe's job is to write down the general topics and the decisions that get made. You don't need a complete set of minutes for every meeting. No one will read them, and they will obscure the important bits, i.e. what you actually decided. The time keeper interrupts when the time for each agenda item has been used up. You may decide to keep going on a topic, but don't let the meetings go longer than agreed. If you get to the end of your time, just stop and pick up where you left off at the next meeting. This will give all the members of the group the idea that time is important at the meeting, not just content. Your boss will love you for it. It also helps to build a sense of professionalism that will spill over into everything you are doing.

At various points in the meeting it will be necessary to assign a task to someone. Part of your job is to quickly figure out who will be best at each task and assign it to them. It doesn't matter who is facilitating -- you, as group leader, can just say "Mike, will you look into that and get back to us at the next meeting? Check in with me if you run into any problems."

Delegate, delegate, delegate. It keeps eveyone feeling like they are part of the group, and it keeps you from getting burned out by trying to do everything. Part of delegating is to know who is supposed to be doing what and to check back with them with a clear expectation that the tasks will be done on time. Make your own notes about this as welll as making sure it gets into the agenda for the next meeting. In the example above you are asking for a report at the next meeting. The scribe should have an agenda list for the next meeting and add that item to it as soon as you ask Mike for a report at the next meeting. Make sure the scribe does this.

One of most important things you can do at the start of the whole process is train your group on how to have effective meetings. This means that for the first several meetings you will have to keep track of what the facilitatior and the scribe are doing and prompt them into proper action if they aren't doing it. Eventually everyone gets used to doing things your way and it becomes a habit with them. Since you are also keeping track of the general flow of information, keeping track of who you have delegated tasks to, keeping track of the various personalities and how they communicate with each other, keeping track the goal of the whole project, and probably lots more, you need to be able to do some effective internal multi-tracking. Stay aware.

You will probably have someone in your group who is more competent than the rest at getting things done, and who will volunteer to do more than they should. Be aware of this when you are delegating tasks. You should give this person more than everyone else, but only a little more.

Have fun with the project, and try to think of ways for everyone in the group to have fun as well.

John Peekstok