A-Infos (en) Bruxel, UCL - Plea for the end of long, boring and messy meetings (ca, de, fr, it, pt, tr)[machine translation]

This article was written and published for Syndicalistes in the context 
of activist and union circles. We loved it so much that we're reposting 
it here. ---- Also called "black holes", meetings that last for ages and 
lead to nothing concrete enrage most activists. They cause interpersonal 
as well as organizational drama and exhaust us - in social movements as 
much as in the daily operations of collectives and unions. ---- This 
plea was written by two activists often in charge of organizing and 
leading meetings. He is a bit cynical but deep down radically full of 
hope towards our comrades, so that the black holes in the meetings will end.

1) People must arrive on time. If they do not arrive on time they do not 
have the right to appear en route and intervene under the modality 
"Maybe it has already been discussed but...".

BONUS:

We can plan for a "slightly vague reception time" of 10 minutes. Beyond 
that, the first to arrive (on time) start to piss off,
one person's role is to welcome latecomers to provide a summary of what 
has already been said, and ongoing discussions, so no one is lost and 
people who have a good reason to be late catch up,
some open meetings are intended to make contact, people may arrive late,
some meetings are purely business meetings, people must be fully 
present. If they have mandates for example, they must be there or 
excused, but not half-there.
2) Practical and concrete considerations always come before general and 
theoretical discussions.

3) Each meeting is structured by an agenda. It is communicated in 
advance by the organizers of the meeting. Points are realistically 
estimated in terms of time.

BONUS:

Ideally - we can always dream - everyone looked at the agenda before the 
meeting, read the related documents, made sure they had fulfilled their 
mandates regarding each of them.
The agenda can be adjusted at the start of the meeting (taking care to 
remain realistic and respect the golden rule: practice before theory).
4) One or two people are responsible for moving the agenda forward. At 
the end of each point, one of the meeting leaders summarizes the decision.

BONUS: all decisions are faithfully reproduced in the report, with a 
summary of the arguments that led to this decision. Ideally, those who 
are absent find out about these decisions before the next meeting.

5). At each point, we make a list of tasks to be accomplished, and 
someone makes sure that each task is assigned to someone.

BONUS: ideally, it's not always the same people who do all the stuff. If 
you tend to collect all the things to do, including tasks linked to the 
ideas of other people - who sometimes have a lot of ideas - remember 
that you are not a "trash can of things to do", but an activist precious 
who has the right to self-respect.

6) Any idea or proposal must be made by people who are ready to 
implement it or who have already estimated the number of people ready to 
implement it. The expressions "all we have to do" / "we have to" are 
prohibited.

7) There will no longer be any general speech on things of which 
everyone present is already convinced. That is to say almost all 
speeches starting with "Macron bla bla bla..." or containing 
"anti-capitalist" and "intersectional" more than once, depending on the 
location.

8) The meeting is limited in time for the good of everyone. Based on 
serious research, it is established that the longer the meeting, the 
less effective it is, and the fewer people are left at the end to make 
the necessary decisions and tasks to be done. If you want to talk and 
hear yourself talk at greater length, you can create your vlog.

9). The consistent union activist puts in place the necessary means to 
abolish the press release. According to a very serious study, it is 
established that the more time spent making press releases, the more the 
time spent doing real things decreases.

For short, exciting meetings that move you forward!

https://bxl.communisteslibertaires.org/2024/01/24/plaidoyer-pour-la-fin-des-reunions-longues-chiantes-et-bordeliques/
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