A TALE OF TWO MEETINGS, continued .....
At the end of our meeting for the Law and Order Committee,
the director of a tribal program came up to me and three
others and said,
"Hey, we need to get together on this new project I am
heading up."
Let's call him Joe instead of his real name so he doesn't
come after me and sue me or punch me in the nose.
So, Joe asks everyone,
"How about meeting at 11:30 next Tuesday?"
Everyone nods their heads. I noticed that no one had a
notebook, Palm or even a piece of paper they had brought to
the meeting to take notes. No one checked their schedule to
see if they had any other meetings. Since I don't have the
world's best memory, when I got back to my office, I wrote
down on the calendar on the wall "11:30 program meeting" on
Tuesday.
I arrived at the meeting room in the tribal administration
building and I was the only one there. I called Joe and he
said,
"Oh, right! I completely forgot I had a woman coming in
from Bismarck today so I can't do it. I forgot to call
people and cancel. Sorry."
While I was on the phone, the director from another program
walked in,
"Aren't we having a meeting today?" he asked.
I shook my head and told him that Joe had forgotten he had
another appointment at the same time.
As we walked back toward our offices, we passed another
person who was supposed to attend the meeting.
"I guess Joe got hold of you and told you the meeting
was canceled," I said.
He looked surprised. "That meeting was today? I guess I
forgot."
Joe walked out of his office then, accompanied by the woman
from Bismarck.
"Hey, just a minute," he said to her, and walked
over to us, "Perfect! Three of the people I needed to
see. Sorry about the meeting today. How about getting
together next Friday?" The other two nodded.
I said, "I can't do it. I am teaching a workshop next
Thursday and Friday."
"Okay, then, well, how about Wednesday?" Again,
the other two nodded.
I said, "I'm not sure. How about I check my schedule at
the office and get back to you."
(All right, the truth is, I knew I didn't have anything on
Wednesday, but I just was getting tired of the off-hand way
meetings were run and scheduled!)