Tag Archives: vtc

The meeting…

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I’ve been trying to schedule a meeting since about 7:45 Monday morning. If you’re a regular reader around here, I think my general feeling about meetings is fairly well known. What I haven’t done, perhaps, is give you a glimpse into why I think they are enormous time sucks from which there is no hope of escape. The following events are true. They took place in the first week of August 2014:

Monday:
-0745- Received email informing me that I had to attend a video conference on Tuesday afternoon.
-0750- Forwarded video conference information to the people responsible for scheduling such things.
-0900- Followed up via email with the people responsible for scheduling such things.
-1230- Informed that the people responsible for scheduling such things no longer had access to email.
-1235- Contacted the people responsible for scheduling such things via phone. Informed that there were no video conference lines available
-1245- Contacted the people responsible for scheduling such things in three other buildings.
-1430- Received confirmation that there were no lines available anywhere no matter how many times I asked.
-1515- Informed by person scheduling the meeting that they were moving the video conference to Wednesday morning.
-1600- End of Tour.

Tuesday:
-0745- Received email invitation to newly scheduled video conference on Wednesday morning.
-0800- Called the people responsible for scheduling such things and was advised by all locations that I was SOL.
-1000- Contacted by the people responsible for scheduling such things to tell me that a line had become available.
-1100- Advised by echelons higher than reality that we didn’t want to talk about Issue #1 in a public forum.
-1115- Informed meeting organizer that I was not prepared to discuss Issue #1 and requested I be excused from attending the meeting.
-1200- Received email confirmation that I was no longer required to attend the meeting.
-1230- Released the one available conference line back to the people responsible for scheduling such things
-1555- Received phone call from meeting organizer informing me that my attendance was now required, but instead of Issue #1, I should discuss Issue #2.
-1557- Requested a “give back” of the one available conference line from the people responsible for scheduling such things
-1600- End of Tour
-1601- Looked around wondering if I had any of the slides left from the last time I had to discuss Issue #2
-1607- Threw my hands up in disgust and departed for the day.

Proposed Itinerary for Wednesday:
-0730- Check email to see if the people responsible for scheduling such things were able to give me back the one available conference line.
-0735- Begin looking for slides related to Issue #2
-0800- Swear violently and possibly throw something.
-0925- Fill coffee mug with fresh “go juice” in effort to stave off inevitable madness.
-0930- Wander halfway across the county to the place where they keep the one available conference line
-1030- Attend meeting and discuss Issue #2. Or not. Depending on what’s in my inbox in the morning.
-1200- End meeting knowing nothing more about Issue #2 than I did at 0930.
-1600- End of Tour.

So as you can see, my visceral hatred of meetings isn’t just something I came up with as an excuse to write a book. It’s a goddamned self defense mechanism.

A dangerous thing…

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Some of you may have noticed that I’m a bit of a technophile. I love the new and the shiny, the sleek and the powerful. I have an overwhelming belief that two year old computers should be heading towards the ash heap of history. And that sets the stage for what comes next…

One of the wonderful features of my work is the quasi-regular video-teleconference we have with various and sundry locations. We tried to host said VTC from our new office this afternoon. When I walked into the room 15 minutes before the great event was to start and all the lights were off, I had the first inkling that there could be a problem. When I went to find the IT people to set up the equipment and they weren’t around, I knew we had a problem.

When, 15 minutes after the meeting should have started, the IT tech is struggling mightily to get the equipment set up we should have known the better part of valor was to throw in the towel. And just when you think the day couldn’t get any more odd, the computer supposed to be running all of the telephone equipment boots up… and is running Windows 95.

Win 95 was a groundbreaking OS back in the day… way back. There have been 5 new versions of windows since then and I hate to estimate how many generations of new computers have come and gone in the last 12 years. I guess that’s why no one was really surprised when 20 minutes into a meeting that started 20 minutes late, the computer froze and dropped the connection.

It boggles my mind that anyone would try to conduct business with this kind of set up. Quite frankly it’s more than a little embarrassing. In the right hands technology is a beautiful thing. In the wrong hands it can be a dangerous thing. But when it’s 2007 and your communications infrastructure is running Windows 95, it’s just a paperweight.