This is a work in progress, but the following are some key areas to consider when preparing to lead a meeting.
1. Be prepared. If you are conducting daily, weekly, or monthly meetings you should set aside some time to prepare a general outline for the topics to discuss. This will insure that the meeting stays the course and is concise.
Write your outline on an index card, a sheet of paper... it will help you keep on topic.
2. Have a rough idea of how much time you want to allocate to the meeting and if necessary designate someone to watch the clock. My thoughts are to ask the busy body or the socially adept, for many reasons.
3. Allow time for questions if necessary. If your meetings don't have an established routine, make it a point to outline the meeting; let your attendees know that you want questions as you run through your topics, or that you would like questions to be saved for the end of the meeting.
4. Be relaxed and enjoy the dynamics of the group. Every group is different, but they also share a lot of the same characteristics- generally, there is a quiet person, a social center of attention (jokester), idea person, the cynic, etc. If you're familiar with your group, find ways to involve the quiet person and ways to keep the jokester at bay.
For more indepth information visit Minutes of Meeting