Everything in the meeting could have been in an e-mail

[Puget]

Had one of these today but in a good way -- tenure meeting (my first since I'm newly tenured myself) for a colleague where it could have just been an email of all of us saying "hell yeah". But per the handbook, we met and duly voted.

[lightning]

I attended another meeting yesterday, where everything was just a series of announcements that could have easily been communicated via email.

So, one announcement sparked some lively and very relevant interactive discussion. The administrator that called the meeting cut off the discussion, because we were running out of time and the admincritter wanted to get through all of their announcements that could have easily been communicated via email.

This is a damning example of meetings at my university. Meetings, here, are a place for administrators to talk to a captive audience. It's like a concert to them, and they think they are the rock stars.

[fizzycist]

If you feel obligated to go, show up late, take frequent breaks, and interrupt the most boring parts with "thought-provoking" questions and comments. They gotta feel some pain too ;)