Friday, March 9, 2012

Meetings

I was invited to a meeting with the Ministry of Science and Technology, along with representatives from all districts in Gaza and several professors. Important meeting. Very different from a meeting in the states.

1. We started an hour and a half late, because the boss-man was late;
2. People were STILL walking in late;
3. Boss-man (Minister of S and T) would answer his phone in mid sentence of talking to us;
4. The presenter was clueless to what he was presenting, like he hadn't practiced at all;
5. Boss-man in turn ripped the presenter apart, telling him "that's wrong" "change that" "research this". I'm sure he was right but the presenter never got more than 5 words in without being interrupted;
6. Invitees were asked to present (without being informed ahead of time). Turns out the invitee was yours truly- not sure it was the best presentation of my life, but I got through..
7. When wrapping up the meeting, each person (whether they want to or not) individually, must talk about the meeting- what they liked, learned, any feedback, questions, etc (note: this went on for an hour).

Several things-
-If the person before you, who has given feedback for +5 minutes, has mentioned everything you want to say, is it imperative that you repeat everything again? Almost word for word?
-Also, if you're going to make an annual calendar and plan events for January and February, it might be helpful to have the planning meeting BEFORE March. Just a thought.

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