Meetings (Groan)

[amiles]

It seems as though every organization that I belong to, HOA, fraternal etc has very few members other than "Officers" show up for meetings. for example the local lodge has over 1,000 members & 4 of these showed up at last months meeting!

The authorities lecture, whine and boo hoo about the lack of interest in these terribly boring assemblies. (Two hours of discussion about the standardization of mailboxes for example)

I briefly belonged to an MOA affiliated club that had meetings so full of controversy that it irritated me to attend them.

I left the Charleston Rally Saturday afternoon because I had a bad feeling that the ceremonies would be a negative experience similar to the last National Rally that I had attended (1978).

Has anyone recently attended a meeting that turned out to be more fun than a trip to the dentist?

[gambrinus]

Most meetings can be spiced up if you can gather a few like minded individuals to play a little game on the sly. Ever hear of Bull**** Bingo? You make BINGO boards but instead of numbers, you write in little bits of lingo or cliches that are particular to your industry or business. I'm a teacher so we make the boards up with words like.. goals, standards, testing, effort... etc. When Anyone says something on your board, you cross off that square. Things get interesting when you have a winner... You can't yell "BULL****" as some other players have mentioned, but you can start coughing wildly and leave the meeting for a drink of water. Not that I would know any of this first hand...

[MarkF]

I belonged to a HAM radio club that had one "business" meeting and one "activity" meeting each month. The activity was either a project, some work or guest speaker. After a while hardly anyone went to the "business" meeting. Guess what? We all lead busy lives and don't want to spend our leisure time doing something that seems too much like work. These local clubs should not need to conduct so much business but they often end up debating which copier service to use or how much was spent on stamps. I also found that many of the elected officials of clubs are ego maniacs who act like they are better than everyone else. It's a shame that a new member of a 80-100 member club is usually exposed first to the 12-20 least personable members. But, the guys and gals just like you or me stopped going to meeting a long time ago.

[Rob Nye]

I fell your pain....

'MOA board meetings take a full day with people meeting for some discussion the night before. I must be a sadist because I find them interesting and enjoy participating. I can see how for someone without plenty of time and strong interest that attending could be worse than watching paint dry. We highly encourage folks to show up but completely understand when only one or two do. That is why I have been working on speeding the approval and distribution of the minutes, we strive for transparency and understand that folks don't want to spend the day in a confrence room to find out what we are up to.

My local club, the Yankee Beemers, has a monthly breakfast / meeting where upcoming events are discussed, new members introduced and some general business is conducted. The breakfast starts at 8:30 and the meeting starts at 9:30 and is usually about 30 minutes long. At least once a meeting there is occasion for a good guffaw from the peanut gallery. We get anywhere from 80-100 for the meal and meeting.

I have been to meetings of the MOV (Vermont Club) BMWRiders of Southern Maine and the Granite State BMW Riders. While each was a little different they all shared the formula of a nice meal then some announcements.

For us the key has been to keep it light and fun. The worst YB meeting I ever attended was when a lobbyist came in to solicit support for his organization. He was preaching working on our behalf to lower Mass. insurance rates. He lost me when he explained with some glee that his group had successfully defeated over 140 citations for noise. That meeting sucked, cuz this jerk took up a half hour with BS. Never trust a lobbyist who says "I only need 10 minutes".

IMO, a good club meeting does not involve open debate. That is best for a open board meeting or campfire. Having said this it is nice to have a moment for "new business" but the person running the meeting needs to keep control of the dicussion lest it turns into what I call a "circular random" and drags on and on and on and on.

As far as ditching the closing ceremonies at Charleston you missed an opportunity to not hear the sound system and watch a certain red-head melt down in front of 6000 people. But it all took less then ONE HOUR! :clap which was a full 90 minutes shorter than the previous rally. If you go to Spokane you will find the ceremoney entertaining and fast paced. If the good saint of electrons is willing you will be able to hear everything. :)

Best

[amiles]

I'll have to try that bull**** Bingo Idea. There are only two flies in the ointment.

My wife will once again be reminded of what an immature person that I am and that the meetings seem to be attended by people too mature and/or boring to realize what is being foisted off on them and be so moved to misbehave in a tongue in cheek manner.

At my Lodge they have even tried free food after the meeting as an inducement to little avail. I am still holding out for free booze, but I think that State Liquor laws probably negate that possibility.

Then of course the question of getting loaded after the meeting seems like too little too late. Getting loaded before? seems like a bad idea as well.

Life can be pretty difficult I suppose.

[kbasa]

When I was president of the YBs, I always thought the purpose of the club was not the running of the club, but rather to serve as a framework of events for people to get together, enjoy their bikes and enjoy each other's company.

The rest was window dressing and, IMHO, largely a waste of time and effort.

The MOA, however, is a multimillion dollar operation and requires management and guidance. The tricky part, like in any organization, be it professional or social, is to get everybody on board with a common goal and objective.

The MOA's objective is to build a feeling of family and friendship for BMW motorcycle owners. With a goal like that, contentious meetings and personal agendas are at complete counterpoint to the values of the organization.

My 2 cents and worth what you paid for it.