2007-11-20 - 5:26 p.m.

...more mtgs and getting through the day...

Today I arrived at work at 9:30 and slid down the icy hill to my office, ate a bagel, and then headed off to a dreadful committee mtg.

OMG. This has to be the WORST RUN COMMITTEE I've ever dealt with. I would rather chew on tinfoil than sit through these meetings. The people just sit there and wander off on all possible topics, in any possible order - it's more random than my relaxed conversations over a cup of tea. It makes me NUTS. and GRUMPY! And yet, they all remain so cheerful and nice even though it must plain dead obvious that I'm waiting for them to untie me so that I can sprint out of the room.

There is quite a history to this committee actually. They haven't met since last March because they haven't been able to vote on who would be the committee co-chair. And without a co-chair, they cannot meet. So they stopped meeting. You may recall my description of an 8-hour meeting that I attended, all about how to be a member of this committee. Not about actually how to perform the duties required, but EIGHT HOURS about the protocols - how to take meeting notes, how to vote, how many people are needed to make up a committee quorum, how many people are required from management and workers to sit on the committee... It pretty much explains how British Cannabis functions (or malfunctions, as the case may be).

So I attended this meeting, after not being able to attend a meeting since last November. (I couldn't attend because the meeting took place when I teach. But rather than SWITCH THE MEETING TIME, they told me to get a replacement.) So...I showed up at this meeting, and THEY WERE STILL DISCUSSING THE EXACT SAME THINGS THAT WERE DISCUSSED AT THE MEETING LAST NOVEMBER. It was the EXACT SAME AGENDA. And, they couldn't remember any of the conclusions from that meeting, and furthermore no one had copies of the mtg notes that would have contained the conclusions. I was ready to hang myself.

I went back to my office and did some therapeutic mapping of data before grabbing a late late lunch, chatting with some colleagues in the UK and at Penninsula, and then came home. Where I sit now, recounting this meeting.

It so makes me appreciate our faculty meetings (words you would never expect ANY faculty member EVER to utter) because THEY ARE SO EFFICIENT. God bless our chair. God bless our chair.