Monday, October 15, 2007

meetings...

Yesterday I was at a congregational meeting at my church...we are consolidating two failing congregations into one, and not everyone is happy to give up their church and create a new one. Understandable.

And the other church -- the congregation we were not members of -- is old. Average age has got to be 60. Meetings are extra fun and exciting when a third of the people present are cranky and mostly deaf.

And we had some fun, boy howdy did we have fun. Once we got through approving the constitution and voting for the council members -- which took an hour and ten minutes -- somebody moved we adjourn, even though we hadn't approved a mission statement and a budget and picked a name...they decided we need to pick a name before we adjourn (and this part took fifteen minutes of discussion -- we could have finished the meeting in the time we spent discussing adjourning.)

So they decided to vote on a name (paper ballot, took no time at all) and then postpone the rest of the business. When almost everyone voted in favor of that, somebody realized we did not approve the financial plan/budget, so that really we could spend no money at all -- not pay any bills, not pay the pastors' salaries, nada -- until the next meeting, which won't be for at least three weeks.

So. We had to vote to approve voting to approve the budget, and then, as soon as somebody moved and seconded that we approve the budget -- another person called the question. And everybody voted in favor of that. Which meant we had to vote right then on the budget, without having ANY discussion of that budget. Not a genius plan, since the budget for the next three months has a shortfall of $2500...

And we have to have another meeting next month, because we did not finish the business at this one. I love meetings.

4 comments:

  1. Your church sounds strangely like my municipal government. Vote on budgets that don't balance. Be cranky and deaf.

    A lot of former or wannabe bureaucrats there, I think.

    I used to walk a lot while reading, but I keep hitting things (light poles, missing curbs).

    Sorry I didn't respond over the weekend. I got Halo3 on Friday after rolling an ankle while golfing (stepping out of the cart, of all things...getting old sucks).

    My daughter (with the kiniesiology degree) said "RICE." Rest, Ice, Compression and Elevation. So, I spent the weekend doing that (I'm really good at the rest part). Of course, I'd ask here every few hours or so when I put the Rice on. She would throw things at me or strike me. Finally, she went off to her boyfriend's house and didn't come back until after I was asleep last night. Darned Whippersnappers!!!!

    My son and a friend and I spent Friday Night-Saturday Morning (9:30 PM to 5:30 AM) completing Halo3 in Heroic on XBOX Live. It Rocks!!! At 5:30 AM, I noticed my nephew logging on to play Halo3.

    I might not be the best influence for your children (or you for that matter) on that whole appropriate times and places for play. It seems I just like to play!!!

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  2. Hey. The outside world must come to a complete halt when HALO 3 comes into the house!

    I, on the other hand, have not played again...but I did spend twenty minutes with Zeke showing me the replay of his best game ever.

    We are beyond influence in finding inappropriate times to play. I have been known to go to bed at 4 am after getting a new game on the computer...and my kids think sleeping from 8 am til noon and then playing again all night is the perfect way to spend a break from school.

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  3. I forgot to add...I drew two Casey Spaceman cartoons during the endless meeting...

    So it wasn't a complete waste.

    ReplyDelete
  4. I love the cartoons. My son is getting me a network hub so I'm at least hooked up simultaneously. This is considered critical during the Fantasy Draft.

    My daughter was threatening to buy one if I was going to be stubborn.

    Most of the time, I considered myself pretty wired (I even got a cell phone this year), but my children put me to shame. And they're damned adults anyway!!!

    ReplyDelete

You like me! You really really like me!

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