Thursday, February 07, 2008

Diplomacy

Once, sometimes twice, a month we have a meeting to set ‘direction’ for our agency. Twenty people attend these meetings. That’s far more people than you should have in any one room trying to reach agreement. On top of that, these meetings usually last six to seven hours, far to long for certain body parts to endure.

One lady attends the meetings to record the minutes. I’m not sure what she did to get that assignment but it must have been something pretty bad. Seriously, she does a great job of capturing what is covered in the meetings. She sends a draft copy of the minutes to a few people to review before sending them out to everyone.

Today I got the draft copy of the minutes from our last meeting. I was scanning through them and as usual, they looked good. I sent her an e-mail that read in part, “Thanks for not capturing my little outburst at the end when we were talking about (whatever). I appreciate that.”

She replied immediately, “Sure thing, Ralph! That's where you'll usually read – “a discussion was held....”

9 Comments:

Blogger Aravis said...

A tactful woman willing to take the notes... priceless. *G*

8:45 PM  
Blogger bobbie said...

Having taken the minutes for a few meetings in my time, I really appreciate what she must be doing.
You're so right about too many and way too long.

8:06 AM  
Blogger Janell said...

That snowtime=lunchtime was bizarre!
I understand putting a "spin" on meeting minutes. I used to work for a newspaper. She should put herself down for a raise!

8:46 AM  
Blogger nora leona said...

My last outburst was described as a "lively discussion" - luckily, I was the one taking the notes.

1:22 PM  
Blogger Jim said...

"a [heated] discussion was held [by Ralph only.]

Way to go Ralph, keep 'em on their toes! Make the toe the line! Pull their own weight! Are you guys just a bunch of **** anyway?

I'm sure that was mild, but I would be proud of you if I heard you, unless it was directed at me.

Mrs. Jim is from Louisiana, she puts hot sauce on everything. She said it doesn't do much for the soup at all, and directed me not to put any at all. She let me use my discretion for everythng else. Some day when I'm here alone and won't be in trouble, I might try it with a couple of cans of canned oysters.
I would put some sausage in it, I wasn't looking forward to the chicken but it turned out to be very tasty.
..

3:50 PM  
Blogger Cliff said...

YEAH, what Jim said.

7:49 PM  
Blogger 1 plus twins said...

now you could take her note of "a diccussion was held" many many ways!! she was tactful, she didnt' want to write tons and tons, or she just doesn't think much of what you had to say. like blah blah blah ha ha i am only kidding!!!!

1:33 PM  
Blogger Rachel said...

Those are long meetings Ralph. You had an outburst! HaHa!! Like Jim said you have to keep them on their toes!!

5:32 PM  
Blogger Jerry in Texas said...

Meetings are such a waste of time. Tell my boss that, would ya?

11:38 PM  

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