Monthly Meetings, Do we really need them monthly?

I am very much in favor of bi-monthly meetings! I agree that they are somewhat repetitious from month to month.

I'm in favor of the monthly meetings, and here's why:

I don't think that 12 meetings a year is a big commitment - or, let's break it down: 3 meetings a term. So, let's see, meetings are usually an hour long - so that's 12 hours a year or 3 hours a term.

There's never going to be an optimal time for everyone to attend, even with 2 different meeting times a month. Having said that, perhaps we could have two different nights...? or Sunday earlier, as some others have suggested.

Everybody would rather do fun stuff on Sunday or not come to a meeting on Wednesday after working all day or all week. Not trying to pick on you, Evan, but I don't think that is a good enough reason to have them every other month.

About that mandatory thing:

Meetings are mandatory now. If we had them less often, it would be more of an excuse for people to not attend, not more of a reason to attend. It would be less on the 'radar screen', so to speak.

Repetition of information/material: I think that's necessary. For instance, I cannot count the number of times over the years that I've heard the following in a general meeting:

"DJs are responsible for shelving CDs when they are done. Lately, there's been a lot of CDs just laying around, not being put back....." etc. etc.

And still, it happens.

Repeated reminders of events? I think that's useful, given that everyone has very busy lives.

In general, things come up that need to be talked about.

I think that one meeting a month, for one hour, is not too much to ask.

It seems the main purpose of the monthly meeting is for staff to disseminate information to volunteers. My thought is that this need could easily be met by a monthly email from Jeremy and/or the staff as a team.

Potentially - much more can be accomplished with smaller groups which meet frequently (the new staff led committees) and these meetings are more engaging and productive. I wouldn’t think it unreasonable that all volunteers associate themselves with at least one committee, and this association would not necessarily require meeting attendance as much as input/involvement on projects…

My suggestion would be to have general meetings quarterly. At these meetings the committees could have more formal presentations on their activities (this would motivate committees to accomplish goals in a timely manner).

That was fun to think about Evan, thanks for bringing it up...
Rachel

I see both sides to this.

I think that if we got the online forum working better and were more active with disseminating information, we might not need them.
But the meetings do serve as a way to get to know people and helps us establish our collective.

Ideas can get bounced around quickly in the meetings, whereas the email list suffers from the problem of emotional disconnect and inferred meanings, instead of healthy discussions and deliberations.

Things definitely do have a tendency to feel stale at times and redundant, but work and life can be that way too.
I love the station and don't mind an occasional afternoon discussing what is needing to be done and sharing ideas and strategies.

Basically, I am impartial.
I see the benefits of the meetings, but also can understand why they aren't that important to some of the DJs.

Yup.
xoxox
-A'damn

I'm all for cutting the meetings to every other month. It seems that staff members can't all make it to all of the meetings with any regularity anymore. All of the topics of the meetings can be shared via email just as easily as in person. I don't think the meetings should be done away with, but cutting back would be a good idea. Especially in light of the amount of fuel we all burn to get together as a station. Half as many meeting would be a great conservation of a major resource and save us all money spent using it.

What's This Called? Saturdays Noon - 1 PM on KPSU!

I think Evan makes a really good point; if we make meetings bi-monthly we would see less flakes on attendance as well as maybe spark more interest. This could also work well if the committees develop well over the next few weeks.

Overall I am in favor....