- Make sure that the committee has a real purpose for existence.
- Make sure that everyone on the committee knows what the purpose is, and agrees
with it.
- Have only the right people on the committee: interested, capable,
and willing to work.
- Remove committee members who are not right for the committee or who do not
participate.
- Don't hold meetings without a clear reason. Call a full committee meeting
only when it is the best way to accomplish the task.
- Give advance notice of meetings, complete with a distributed agenda and reading
materials.
- Encourage everyone to participate during the meeting. Utilize seating
arrangements that encourage equality of participation. Use namecards if attendees do
not know one another. Discourage members who monopolize the discussion.
- Set norms for behavior at the first committee meeting, and stick to them.
- Start and end meetings on time. If work isn't done when time is up,
negotiate a time for further discussion.
- Have an agenda for each meeting. Schedule important items first on the
agenda.
- Allocate time for discussion according to the importance of each issue.
Send members a summary of the meeting, keying on the decisions made and on the
assignments given.
- Don't have more than eight people on a committee without breaking it into
sub-committees.
Be very specific about tasks and deadlines.
- Don't discuss, re-discuss, and continue to discuss items.
- Conclude each meeting with a summary of what is to be done by whom.
- Double-check for agreement on important issues. Seek opposing points of
view.
- Don't allow unrelated discussions during meetings.
- Make sure everyone gets credit for the accomplishments of the committee.
- Allow some social time following each meeting.
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