I'm the member of a board of directors for a couple of non-profits. These are volunteer gigs where the active participants work hard and play hard together. Dejalurker has reminded me of late that we do all this crap not only for altruistic reasons but also so we get some rewards in personal growth. So I'm at this point where I'm trying to decide if I'm getting as much out as I'm putting in. This is kind of a more serious post, but, I'll snap out of that shortly.
How 'bout a skit? Yay!
So this was an awkward sucky meeting I attended last nite, and, keep in mind this is an (allegedly) fun volunteer gig.
Me: let's get this party started. (I didn't really say that. But sometimes I do). Now, who would like to take notes?
Them: Let's tape our meeting discussion! [digital recorder turned on - meeting commences and stumbles along for about an hour - everyone is uncomfortable being recorded. After we have discussed everything on the agenda and the table has simmered down...]
Me: Sounds like we have resolved everything we came to resolve, agreed?
Them: [silent stares]
Me: OK, then--we can wrap--
Them: [interrupt with more questions and comments followed by dead silence]
Me: Alrighty, let me recap before we close --
Them: [interrupt with more questions and comments followed by dead silence and stares]
Me: [quickly so that nobody can start talking again] Now, I think we can adjourn, but before we do, who would like to transcribe the notes from the recorder? I cannot, as I have hours of notes to digest from our other meetings, so, somebody else needs to.
Them: Not me.
Me: Not me.
Them: How about Betty?
Me: She's not even here.
Them: All the better.
Me: No, it needs to be one of you six people.
Them: Not me. We need an intern to type notes.
Me: You just have to write the 4 conclusions we reached and the action plan. And I'm too busy, I have to blog.
Them: I wish we had a high school student working with us who would just type notes.
Me: We need to decide this so we don't lose our decisions and then have to meet again.
Them: Oooh, I know - we could email the digital audio file to EVERYONE.
Me: No. We are not sending a digital audio file of our hour-long conversation about this one thing.
Them: I wish we had an intern to just type notes.
Me: I will get you an intern if you work with me on setting up the curriculum and supervise the intern.
Them: No that's too much work.
-End scene-
Thanks to Bill Damon for reminding me that meetings can suck the life out of anyone. But perhaps if there were a meeting suck-off I could win something? Never mind. That sounds gross.
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