As a facilitator or participant, we can help hold ideas and questions to keep them from getting lost. Here are a few ideas...:

• Keep a list of open or unanswered questions either in electronic form or just in a notebook by your computer.
• Regularly recap open questions.
• Track completed questions and save this for summaries later in the process.
• Acknowledge questions that may be out of the current thread so the questioner knows they have been "heard" -- make sure they are re-asked at a more logical or "appropriate" time.
• If a question that has already been answered comes up again, refer the questioner to the original answer. Sometimes the best way to do this is to build a FAQ (frequently asked questions) and post on a static web page for easy referral. This builds on group knowledge without wasting folks time. Saves on "overhead."

What other ideas do you have about "holding questions?"