Chairing it

Chairing a meeting is actually more difficult than I thought. I had the opportunity to be the chair person for a technical meeting consisting of about 25 people this morning. It was more like a unplanned chairing as I did not prepare the speeches at all.

I've always prefer an informal talk in any level of meeting. However this is a different case. The chair person is expected to, of course, start the meeting in a formal way of speeches. It has to start with a Welcome speech, followed by Prayers, an Introduction of what will be covered in the meeting, and followed by issues to be raised.

It felt awkward to me as I have a feeling of rush to end this meeting. I tried to think that the attendees as people who work under me, however it's hard to keep that mindset as you know some of them know more than you. I guess experience counts when it comes to confidence. You can't fool yourself.

Anyway before I realised, the meeting has already ran for more than an hour. The ending part felt strange too. I felt I am trying to get all the attendees out of the room quickly, but of course after the food and drinks. And have you realised something, it is always difficult to get the first person to stand up and get the drinks before the Chair person actually do it first.

A word of advise, if you organised a meeting, and you do not know who is chairing it, you better come prepared.