6/29/20
Murphy’s law says to the effect that anything that can go wrong will go wrong. That was on full display at this meeting. I am just hoping this is a one-time occurrence and not happening with regularity. It started off on the wrong foot for me when we logged in at 12:35 to a meeting that is touted to start at 12:45 but was told they really wouldn’t start until 1:00 since that’s when everyone gets there.
Samir, the only person logged on at the time rationalized the late start saying “we are informal around here”. Informal or not, you respect people’s time. Steve and I were members of a club who did the same thing. They kept waiting until everyone showed to start the meeting so those arriving early or on time had to wait even longer and eventually even they started arriving later and later because they wouldn’t be starting on time anyway. My thought is if your club isn’t starting until 1:00, then advertise that is starting time.
This club has 10 members and two pathway goals which tells me they need to increase in membership and need to work the educational program. When we did start at 1:00, we were greeted cordially. I do appreciate beforehand that Samir sent the Zoom link and then Shirley followed up with an email. I wish all clubs took the time and attention to do this. Once everyone started showing up they frantically realized none of the speakers were there. One was supposed to be a guest speaker so they called her and she had the time mixed up and would be there shortly. In the meantime, Steve did say he had a pocket speech if they needed a speaker and they quickly accepted.
They had five members at their meeting. The three women did not seem very tech savvy and the men kept trying to tell them what to do. Steve said they were “mansplaining”. All I know is after the meeting began that the two men’s “knowledge” of tech is what caused the rest of the meeting to go awry. Samir was the host, and he inadvertently locked us out of renaming ourselves on our screen. So my husband and I were "Cynthia Lanham." We couldn’t figure out the problem even after logging out and back in twice. We finally asked Samir to rename us and he did. We didn’t realize until later that Samir had locked us out of renaming ourselves. Erol was the timer and wanted to share the timing screen. We found out the hard way that when he shares the timing screen no one else’s shared screen can be seen.
Steve gave a beautiful speech about his baby birds complete with vivid photographs as he charted their growth. Who knew, no one could see the photographs? Samir, said during the speech he figured out how to see Steve’s photographs, but no one ever stopped Steve once to say they couldn’t see his pictures. He is pretty proud of those pictures and it hurt him that they didn’t let him know so he could figure out the solution. In an “informal” club, he should have been given the time to figure out the problem. They did give him time before the meeting adjourned to show his pictures so I appreciated that. The timer ended up having to hold up fingers as signals to the second speaker. From high tech to low tech in a matter of minutes.
I will say even though this meeting was a series of unfortunate events, the members maintained their composure. They remained upbeat and positive and went with the flow. Maybe that’s what they mean by “informal.”
I am going to stop ranting now. The experience is over. The whole meeting would be sad if it weren’t so comical - like watching a Laurel and Hardy show. I am going to hope this is a one-time thing and most meetings run smoothly. But then again, maybe these members like constant chaos. Maybe it keeps them on their toes. I am going to refrain from giving my thoughts or suggestions. Maybe today is one of those days you just crawl back into bed and pull the cover over your head and wait for tomorrow. So I leave it at that. Visit the club or not and draw your own conclusions.
No comments:
Post a Comment