Search Committees

I don't know if this has been posted before and I'm not too sure if I'm putting this in the right area of the forums but here it goes. I'm sure many of us have been on a number of interviews for jobs. The question is has anyone been on the other side before, giving the interview or participating in a search committee to hire someone?

I'm a part of a search committee to hire a Assistant Registrar for our office. This is the third search committee that I've been on during my tenure at the college. I have to say it's a interesting experience. There's a person leading the committee and there are usually 2 to 3 (sometimes more depending on position) other people. The committee basically goes over resumes and decides who to call in for a interview. We rank the resumes based on experience, qualifications and whether or not their experience matches what the posted job tasks. We (as a group) create questions to ask these candidates. We interview a handful of people and out of the handful we decide who goes to the next round of interviews. We also have to write a brief summary about what we each think of the candidate we interviewed. We all also have to be aware of certain affirmative action requirements since these candidates have a right to question why the committee did not select them for the final round.

Has anyone here ever been on a search committee before? Has anyone here ever been on the other side and interview a potential employee before? How did you feel about it? Did you learn something? Did you feel comfortable? Did you like it?