Frustrating Meetings

I have attended several meetings for this organization in the past. Leadership was poor and the meetings were increasingly frustrating. As a result, nothing was getting done and I realized this wasn’t the best use of my time.

I was surprised when I sat down at a recent meeting with this organization. There was enthusiasm. People were volunteering to do things to move forward and ideas were flowing. Then, I looked around and noticed the leader was not present.

There was a mix up in communicating the meeting. Many members weren’t there because the communication process didn't work. The consensus was to send out a new meeting notice for the following week and resume the rich conversation they had started that evening. It was all very exciting and hopeful.

At their insistence, I attended the meeting the following week. When I walked into the room, the leader was there. The focus of the meeting turned to members who have wronged the leader who was not invited to the last meeting. The momentum and any hope of progress came to a screaming halt.

Then, much like an archeological dig, the complaints went further and further. Each shovel of dirt uncovered another tidbit of wrong-doing. And with each shovel, I could see the members sinking further into the abyss of powerlessness and hopelessness.

By the end of the meeting, they were just sitting there being lectured to with no vision, no enthusiasm, no commitment, no participation and no volunteering to move forward. And worse, no leadership.

The meeting was pulled back into their circle of ineffectiveness and I was pulled back into the memory that this is the reason I stopped attending these meetings.