I’ve been keen to read some of the leadership books I’ve read reviews of but not found time to read. A few months ago, some people involved in ALA activities who wanted to do the same decided to set up a library leadership book club. we all voted on the books we wanted to read and the most popular one was How to make meetings work: the new interaction method. We had around a month to read it and then set a date to discuss it via Google Hangout. Read the rest of this entry »

I didn’t actually think I’d be writing a blog post about this yet – chairing meetings was on my list of things I’d be doing later this year (in my role as chair of CILIP West Midlands) but there was confusion over the date of the committee changeover. Seeing as the current chair couldn’t attend the committee meeting earlier this week at the last minute, the rest of the committee decided I should chair the meeting (which left the Vice Chair very confused as the current Chair had asked him to stand in). Unfortunately I got lost on my way to the meeting room and arrived a couple of minutes late so receiving the news I was chairing the meeting after that made for a flustered start! We also had no agenda so the meeting was a little haphazard to say the least.

I’ve attended numerous meetings so tried to stick to some sort of structure similar to what I knew we usually do although I did miss out some crucial elements like welcoming our new committee members and checking the previous meeting’s minutes for accuracy.

I have also been doing some reading about successful chairing of meetings as I’m keen to change the structure of the agenda (at present I don’t feel it is an effective use of our time) and am interested in different approaches and best practice. This may well be the subject for another blog post if I manage to get something better put in place. I’ve been reading some of Facilitating Meetings and Chairing Discussions and Meetings That Give Results: How to Plan and Chair Productive Meetings.

Here are some things I learnt from my reading and my first experience of chairing a meeting.

Before the meeting (sadly on this occasion I didn’t have the luxury of this, but next time I hope to!)

• Plan an agenda and circulate it beforehand so everyone knows what will be discussed at the meeting (if appropriate, invite attendees to request items to be added to the agenda by a specified date – probably at least a week before the meeting).
• Ensure the secretary has all the relevant information including the agenda, previous meeting minutes, and any documentation you need to discuss at the meeting well in advance so that they can pass the relevant documents to attendees or print for distribution at the meeting.
• Ensure each attendee has any relevant documentation including the agenda in advance of the meeting (preferably by email so that they can choose whether they wish to print or not).
• Make sure you arrive at the meeting in plenty of time to ensure the room is set up correctly, you have all the materials you need, and you can welcome people as they arrive.

During the meeting

• Remember to welcome everyone to the meeting and aim to start on time.
• Facilitate the discussion rather than dominating it – ensure everyone gets their chance to express their views (if appropriate).
• Keep an eye on time throughout so that you don’t overrun (you may need to ask people to keep their points brief).
• Ensure the minute taker is following throughout  - check with them at key points, or write down any actions yourself so that you can check afterwards that all were recorded. This is particularly important if the minute taker is new to the group and may not know attendees (and therefore who is responsible for what) or if they are unfamiliar with meeting content.
• Stick to the agenda as much as possible – sometimes discussion will creep but try to keep it on topic and put discussions on hold until later if they are on the agenda but are mentioned earlier on (unless it makes sense to move them).

After the meeting

• Thank everyone for attending.
• Follow up on any actions you have – there’s nothing worse than reviewing the actions at the next meeting and the chair repeatedly having to say, “Oh, yes, I haven’t done that yet”.
• Assist the minute taker with minutes if needed.
• Set a date for the next meeting and start the process all over again!

I still have a lot to learn when it comes to chairing meetings. Being thrown in at the deep end was probably a good thing though as it made me realise which areas I really need to improve on. For the next meeting I’m hoping to set an agenda based on current activities rather than the standard set agenda that we have used in the past for everyone to report back (sometimes not everyone has anything to report and others have a lot of items to report back on). I’d also like to set approximate times for each item, even if that’s only for my own time management. I don’t want to be too rigid so that people have chance to discuss each item but I do think it’s important to ensure adequate time to discuss everything that needs to be discussed – in the past we have overrun and not covered elements we wanted to discuss.

Are there any other useful tips for chairing meetings? All advice greatly appreciated!

I found last year’s resolutions useful in helping keep me on the right track last year, and am pleased to say I kept most of them – here’s a review:

• Complete my MSc dissertation – finished in July
• Attend more conferences – I attended lots of great conferences and events in 2011
• Implement the Getting Things Done system at home and work – I seem to have this sorted for electronic information, though need to work on physical organisation of paperwork and notes
• Participate in Library Day in the Life – I took part in both rounds of Library Day in the Life in 2011
• Continue to blog – I posted 44 times on this blog in 2011, and also blogged for Evidence Base and for projects I’m involved in

As it was a useful exercise for helping me focus last year, so I’ve decided to set myself more resolutions/goals for this year. In common with Erin, these are general aims so cover all areas of my life.

1. To work on CILIP Chartership (reflecting on achievements and updating wiki on at least a monthly basis)
2. To improve physical organisation, particularly in home office – notes and paperwork etc.
3. To achieve a more productive balance between different parts of my life ensuring I make time for professional, personal, and social activities
4. To continue to blog about professional issues and ideas as well as reflection on activities
5. To publish at least one paper (preferably peer-reviewed)

Bring it on!

I’m a creature of habit, so I’m continuing the tradition of posting an end of year blog post (see 2008, 2009, and 2010). It’s actually really useful for me to look back and see what I did each year. So, what has 2011 involved?

1. My ALA 2011 badge complete with ribbons!, 2. Louisiana State University, 3. Osney Building at University of Oxford, 4. CILIP signage Read the rest of this entry »

I recently attended my first CILIP AGM. I helped organise the CILIP West Midlands AGM earlier this year but this was a much more formal affair. I learnt a lot about CILIP and its governance, so thought I’d reflect on my experience and share my thoughts (well, actually it was my soon-to-be mentor for CILIP Chartership who prodded me to record my thoughts and gave me some starter questions whilst it’s still fresh in my mind).

Read the rest of this entry »

This week I’m participating in the Library Day in the Life project which charts the day-to-day activities of library workers at different points of the year. This is the fifth time I’ve participated; you can see my earlier posts from July 2009, January 2010, July 2010 and January 2011. I’m currently a full-time Researcher at Evidence Base, Birmingham City University, UK. Although my job title doesn’t include the word librarian and I don’t work in a library, I still consider myself very much a librarian – our research helps support the library and information communities.

I decided to do Library Day in the Life a little different this time round; partly because I’ve been busy, and partly as I’m not sure verbatim accounts are the most interesting thing to write or read. So instead I’ll be writing a summary of what I’ve been up to this week (using Nirvana, my to do list, to help me as I can check my logbook to see what tasks I’ve finished). My work life and professional interests often cross over so this list includes some pure work tasks, and other professional related tasks such as committee work and studying. Read the rest of this entry »

I’m organising CILIP West Midlands Members’ Day and AGM 2011 at the moment, and during the day I’d like to take the opportunity to get people’s opinions on what the focus should be for the branch over the next 12 months. As marketing officer on the committee, I’d particularly like to find out what people’s needs and expectations of the branch are. What support would people like from the branch? What sort of events would they like us to run? Where in the region would they like events/networking opportunities? How would they like to communicate with the branch? It would also be good to get views on the discussions about the future of branches and groups (read Emma Illingworth’s blog post for an excellent overview of the recent meeting about this), though that may be a bit ambitious!

Read the rest of this entry »

Continuing on the tradition from 2008 and 2009, it’s time for my end of year blog post. As a naturally reflective person, I find it very useful to reflect back on my achievements of the year and consider what to focus on next. It’s also useful to look at my previous end of year posts and look back at what I’ve done in the last few years.

So what did 2010 bring? Well, I certainly satisfied that itch I mentioned this time last year! Read the rest of this entry »

Apologies in advance for the shameless self-promotional nature of this post. I like to use this blog as a personal record (I’m also hoping this will come in handy when I do my Chartership), so I’m just sharing a few things I’ve been up to lately elsewhere in the blogosphere. I spent some time last week writing blog posts for various places, and some of these have now been published and may be of interest. I also want to share a new project which I’m really excited about. Read the rest of this entry »

CILIP West Midlands are organising a one-day conference, Libraries – Building for the Future, held on Tuesday 9th February and sponsored by TOP-TEC. The event includes information about two exciting new libraries; The Library of Birmingham and the Worcester Library and History Centre, which will be the first fully integrated public and university library in Europe.

There are some great speakers, including library workers from different sectors as well as architects, and there will be opportunity for networking with other professionals, both in the library and architecture fields. The event will also include the AGMs for CILIP West Midlands, West Midlands Career Development Group, and the Public Libraries Group.

The conference is being held in Birmingham Theatre Library in central Birmingham (walking distance from New Street station).

It’s open to all – CILIP members and non-members; people local to the West Midlands region and those further afield. The cost for the day is just £17.25 for CILIP members, £34.50 for non- members, and the cost includes lunch and refreshments. You can read more about the day and get booking information from the programme.

It would be great to meet new people, so I hope to see you there!

EDIT: Unfortunately, this event has since been cancelled.