We Believe in Meetings

We're very very busy and we have a lot to do and we haven't got a minute to explain it all to you...
 Sandra Boynton ¹  

We believe in meetings - all that have been scheduled, all that are now scheduled, and we believe that there will yet be scheduled many great and important meetings. We have endured many meetings and hope to to be able to endure all meetings. Indeed we may say that if there is a meeting, or anything that resembles a meeting, or anything that we might possibly turn into a meeting, we seek after these things.
Mary Ellen Edmunds ²

Several years ago, my friend Walt, told me in disgust there were members of the church council who used meetings as a way to get away from their wives, the way other men went to the bar. This was a socially acceptable way to avoid responsibilities that made them feel uncomfortable.

I think there may be managers doing the same thing. Rather than spend time with their employees they have meetings to cultivate a sense of importance. I can't make that decision right now. I'm busy. I get this feeling even though I work for a company that has very good guidelines around business meetings:

• If you go to a meeting and you don't know what the meeting is about in the first 10 minutes ask. If no one can tell you leave.
• If you don't receive an agenda, refuse the meeting.
• If you receive a meeting invitation and you don't think you should be there, refuse the invitation.

Is it just me?


1. BusyBusyBusy,  Rhinoceros Tap, 1996 - Available here
2. 14th Article of Faith, Retrieved from http://www.byhigh.org/Alumni_A_to_E/Edmunds/MaryEllen.html 3 January, 2012