We’re still members at ECOR, so we attended the annual meeting, where our friend Dave was sporting one of these in his lanyard, and passing others out. I didn’t realize the camera on this computer is a mirror-cam, so if you can’t read it in the picture, it says, “Vote for Jerry.”
There was only one person for each vestry slot and one person for each delegation seat, so as it turned out, Jerry’s plans for a campaign barbeque and Dave’s campaign signs weren’t really necessary. The by-laws were changed to reflect the annual meeting no longer being held in January, which fits nicely for having it on Mother’s Day and Pentecost, and squished into the 47 minutes between two services with baptisms.
I’m not one for long meetings, but 47 minutes for an annual meeting pretty much guarantees there’s never any discussion or anything of substance.
If you wanted to run a meeting and make it look like people had input, that there were discussions, but you wanted to insure nothing of substance actually happened–how would you do it? How about sticking 12 minutes of discussion at 9 tables that people are free to circulate to and talk to their vestry members into a 47 minute meeting? How about ensuring the meeting can’t start early or run over by putting it between two services? How about scheduling it on Mother’s Day?
Wow. I didn’t realize I felt so strongly. That happens a lot in this process . . . in the writing process in general. All kinds of stuff rolls off the fingertips far more than rolls off the tongue. Well, especially now, as my tongue seems to fail me more often than not, as my brain scrambles to give my tongue the words I know are there . . . the specific word that I really want to use.