Signs of Bad Meetings

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• The chair or secretary who rigs the agenda to supress discussion of contentious issues.
• The Head of Department (HoD) who presents a position paper, budget proposals, or funding figures which nobody else has seen - two minutes before the meeting is due to begin.
• People who sit around eating, drinking, or opening their mail during meetings.
• The 12 item agenda which is chaired through to item 3 in two and a half hours - then rushed through items 4 to 12 in thirty minutes.
• The HoD who either edits the minutes of meetings, or intimidates the secretary to do so - in order to remove any record of dissent.
• The chair who responds personally to every single contribution, and thus sets up a one-person 'discussion'.
• The HoD who insists on a two-hour discussion of a thorny issue - then ignores the result.
• Chairs you fail to distinguish 'meetings' from 'debates', and so allow people to dance with their favourite angel on the head of any lurking pinbox.
• Secretaries who insist that every agenda item is further opportunity to rehearse complaints about levels of administration resourcing within the organisation.
• Anyone who brings their mobile phone to the meeting.
• The meeting which discusses agenda items at great length, but then refers all decisions on them to other committees - which are composed of the same people.
• HoD: [after making a politically correct proposal which sends everybody into paroxysms of fear, loathing, and embarrassment - and to which nobody responds] "Through you, Chair, I can see that some members of staff are displaying inappropriate body language."