If I attended all the meetings I am called to there would be several a week!
I already disliked meetings before David became ill and I couldn't get to many of them! Meetings of all sorts proliferate during the winter months here....decisions that have been shelved for the summer suddenly become urgent...a meeting is called.
Having had a break from meetings I am now reluctant to start them again....
It's not just church meetings, all sorts of offshoots, set up by good well meaning people claim my attention far too often for comfort...
I have to go to some of them and am struck by how often the floor is held by people who have never learned the value of economy of words...
Some people believe that the more words they use the better the argument. If what you are trying to do is bore people into submission then you are on a winner!
To try to explain to people that in speech too many words, talking around a subject dragging in all sorts of extra information can kill the original proposition , is not easy......
Coming from someone who actually gets up in church to preach this may well seem hypocritical. But having been a teacher for the best part of my life I know how easy it is to lose the interest of those in front of me...but trying to get this message over to colleagues now is not only difficult, it could be dismissed as a disagreement with the subject under discussion...
Church, school, choir, societies , they all have their committees. They also all have budding orators who love to take centre stage to develope themes on all sorts of subjects...
I have to attend far too many meetings.....listen to too many propositions. Every single one of them is worthwhile. They are all serving the villages here well....people giving up their time to get things done...
I just wished there were fewer words employed!
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4 comments:
Words ARE important.
Don't waste them. :-)
I love the English language and greatly admire those people with really extensive vocabularies, but absolutely loath 'verbal diarrhoea' and hide from those who suffer from it. (or rather who inflict it on others).
The greatest art in public speaking in my opinion is not so much the use of many words as knowing when to stop.
Ear plugs are useful:-)
Bit embarrassing to put in though!
I've learned to curb my tongue at meetings. When I was working earlier in my career, I was a Clerk. Which meant attending meetings to take the minutes. Most of these meetingss had nothing whatsoever to do with me, but my silent presence transcribing was apparently key to the success - particularly as I was accurate, sometimes too accurate in recording what was said and by who.
I'm still quite handy at doing this, but now I do it as part of logging for the purposes of theological reflection) - but have not been described as over analytical and over thinking things.
I do try not to say too much at meetings, realising that prolonging them isn't in the best interests of anyone - and I find it amusing to watch the body language of others as we listen to someone being over verbose. Thankfully, we have someone to take the minutes so not my brief, although I did fall into the trap on one meeting and was asked to take the minutes - the old saw of being too detailed instead of summarizing made sure that I wasn't asked again - apparently, people don't like to be reminded of exactly what they said? :(
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