What? More Meetings?

A Friday 5

1. What's your view of meetings? Choose one or more, or make up your own:
a) When they're good, they're good. I love the feeling of people working well together on a common goal.
b) I don't seek them out, but I recognize them as a necessary part of life.
c) The only good meeting is a canceled meeting.
SOmetimes they are a necessary evil. Some (fewer) times they can be sources of energy and reinvigoration. When they work well they are really good. ANd I really don't mind meetings at all. Of course there are some that I can only call a couple of hours I will never get back.

2. Do you like some amount of community building or conversation, or are you all business?
In many ways it depends on the nature of the meeting. Our PResbytery meets 2x a year for a weekend. THe community building is a big part of them (and sometimes their saving grace). But a monthly Board meeting needs to be more focussed. Generally I find a meeting that goes on for over 2 hours to be a waste--nothing really gets accomplished after 120 minutes unless one is doing a variety of different things in that time.

3. How do you feel about leading meetings? Share any particular strengths or weaknesses you have in this area.
I rather enjoy it. I can keep a meeting on schedule fairly well. BUt to be honest, keeping church meetings on schedule and on topic IS rather like herding cats. WHile this isn't part of the question I have to note that I detest taking minutes. I simply can't do that and participate and I am too mouthy to not participate (a downside to chairing sometimes as well--or mayvbe a good thing about chairing since it encourages me to be quieter).

4. Have you ever participated in a virtual meeting? (conference call, IM, chat, etc.) What do you think of this format?
Our Presbytery Exec meets by conference call the majority of the time. It works great for business only--not for community building or chat or really for visioning-type discussions. HOwever it does not work well when most people are in the rtoom and one is on the phone. I have done that too and the one on the phone tends to get forgotten about.

5. Share a story of a memorable meeting you attended.
WEll there is the first PResbyterymeeting after I arrived here but I will tell that story in a couple of weeks (on its anniversary). SO I will go with the 1997 Annual Meeting of the church camp I was involved with in Edmonton. WE had a powerplay, really an attempt to take over teh Board. IT was interesting to watch someone make a motion that all current Board terms be ended and then claimit wasn't a motion of non-confidence in the Board. It really was not a pleasant experience.