Meetings

I don't think I've ever met anyone who likes meetings. It is only grudgingly that people agree to write minutes or chair meetings. Especially in churches. Getting people to be members of church council or representatives for synods is like pulling teeth. It doesn't surprise me one bit. Only if I hear a (very clear) voice from heaven will I willingly agree to be on one of those.

We have meetings in the shop every Monday. That's OK though (even though I always get to write the minutes), since it can't last longer than 50 minutes (we open the shop at 9), and the stuff that's talked about actually affects me.

But take the church (half-yearly) AGM we had yesterday. I was so ready to go after an hour. My husband and I go to these things because we are members of the church, and it's important to know what's going on, and be involved etc. The pastor's report, the report on the youth and even the finance report was interesting (bearable anyway).

But as soon as we got to nitty gritty things like passing a motion about some trust that I didn't even know existed... *CRINGE* And then there was a discussion about the wording of the motion. There was actually a discussion about whether or not to omit the word "THE" from the sentence.

Some people seriously just like to hear their own voice. When the chairperson asks: Are there any questions? and your question is not of life or death importance then please just shut up! Gee man. We were there for over 2 hours.

I know it's good to inform the people of what's happening in the congregation and involve them in the decision-making processes, but there is so much damn red tape anyway. If anything wants to be decided it first needs to go through so many channels. You'll be lucky to suggest something as a congregation member and have it take effect before the end of 2009. Stuff that was discussed and voted on at the last AGM in Feb are still waiting to be decided by the council.

*SIGH*

Plus, do you really have to vote on every single little detail? And what's up with people abstaining? Why can't you just decide on which charity you want us to support next year? If you're going to abstain, then just don't come to the meeting.

*Gnome decides to come well-prepared for the next meeting: armed with good reading material*