Let the good discussion continue in the post below… but it’s Friday, so…

In honor of a couple of marathon meetings I attended this week:

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.
I have been all three of these at various times, but I waver most frequently between a and b. In some of my ministries I have been moving “beyond meetings.” We need face time a few times a year, but for the most part, people have their marching orders and they do their thing. We communicate by e-mail and phone.

2. Do you like some amount of community building or conversation, or are you all business?
I do like community building, but the moderator of the meeting needs to have done his/her homework. If the meeting goes over time or is all over the place, people tend to blame the touchy-feely stuff rather than poor leadership. It can be done well. We do a 25 minute spiritual practice or book study at our session meetings that I lead, and I think it’s beneficial since we are also about spiritual leadership.

3. How do you feel about leading meetings? Share any particular strengths or weaknesses you have in this area.
I feel very comfortable doing this, though I won’t necessarily volunteer to lead in a setting in which the leader is not obvious. The introvert in me. And being a J on the Myers-Briggs can be a strength and a weakness. My meetings are efficient and never go over time. But at times people probably feel like I cut off discussion before it had fully run its course.

4. Have you ever participated in a virtual meeting? (conference call, IM, chat, etc.) What do you think of this format?
Yes. I actually prefer chat to conference calls, because I don’t like that thing where people talk at the same time, then everyone stops, then everyone starts talking again. Probably a good facilitator can help mitigate this. Chat is not an efficient way to run a meeting, but the benefit of not having to leave one’s easy chair (or even change out of pajamas) mitigates that.

5. Share a story of a memorable meeting you attended.

Our denomination’s General Assembly is an awesome experience peppered with moments of hair-pulling frustration. The first time I attended, whenever they started wordsmithing in the plenary assembly, I felt like I was being nibbled to death by ducks. I abhor writing in committee, and wordsmithing in a committee of 600 people is probably one of RM’s Circles of Hell.

Image from despair.com, a wicked and funny site.