meetings

In my previous life, I attended many a 'business' meeting. While these meetings had set start and stop times, the published schedule was rarely followed and often the discussion portion would spiral out of control. Yesterday's Friends meeting ran a bit long, something I fully expected due to the nature of our agenda and the fact that the donation of our funds was involved.  People perk right up when donating money is discussed and several questions were asked and comments were made.

Being 'president' is interesting as I feel  I am there to steer the conversations and make sure that the forum is open and conducive to freely flowing conversations. I try to not inject my personal opinion and just provide facts.  In one situation my silence was required after a member made a comment regarding one of the topics. Not easy for me to do, but in that case I decided silence was the best course as she hadn't asked a question and instead stated her opinion.  No real need for a response from me, but it was a bit awkward.

The money topic was tabled and will be removed from the table for further discussion and the vote next month. By then everyone present will have had the opportunity to discuss, mull, ponder and vent about the issues. 

I was tired when I got home. The meeting ran 75 minutes and while not contentious, it was intense in many ways as most meetings are that involve money.