People were shocked last week when I mentioned that DH’s department holds weekly meetings. Ugh ugh ugh. They’re long too and the kind where they fight the same battles every week and nothing gets done. (And if you’re not there they assign you service.) And they’re definitely not catered.
We have monthly meetings, but they’re canceled when there’s nothing to discuss (like this month!) Our meetings are an hour long and if they’re held over lunch they’re catered. We have an agenda, we go through it, and we leave with action items.
For our academic readers:
How often do you meet?
For how long?
Are your meetings catered?
September 12, 2012 at 5:39 am
We meet twice a month, for two hours each time. I think this is too much. Previously none of the meetings had been catered, but we have a new chair as of this month and now the one meeting per month that is over lunch will be catered, so I’m excited about that.
September 12, 2012 at 5:49 am
Meetings are once a month or so, about 6 a year. They are between 1-3 hours long – longer meetings for P&T discussions, student awards, etc. Catered twice a year – the first meeting and the last. They are never cancelled, despite my most fervent wishes.
September 12, 2012 at 6:15 am
Catered? You’re kidding, right? No. Supposedly 1/month, supposedly 1 hr. Don’t count on it, but you can go to the bank on not catered.
September 13, 2012 at 6:42 pm
You must be at #2′s school.
September 12, 2012 at 6:33 am
Ours run 1.5 hours, sometimes a bit more, sometimes a bit less. They happen on an “as needed” basis, so sometimes there is more than a month with no meetings, followed by a string of meetings once a week (usually when we have to add meetings about hiring). Catering? Hahahaha.
September 12, 2012 at 6:37 am
We meet at minimum once per semester. Other meetings are dependent upon what’s happening, but it usually comes out to once a month. Sometimes there’s food, if there’s money. Not so much these days.
I used to work at a place that had weekly or biweekly meetings. I have to say I prefer more frequent shorter meetings to meetings that go two hours or more…
September 12, 2012 at 6:56 am
monthly, 1.5 hours, “catered” by whoever gets stuck picking up snacks if that counts. They are TORTURE but if you are junior faculty and skip you get in trouble.
September 12, 2012 at 6:57 am
YOU have to provide snacks? I’d rather not have snacks!
September 12, 2012 at 12:49 pm
the $ is reimbursed but some poor committee f*cker has to shop. worse part of gig (except having to do the prayer) I used to call my “other” committee assignment the catering committee since our “meetings” had food too. Its part of the culture tho
September 12, 2012 at 5:21 pm
…you pray…at meetings… and not just, “Dear lord, please let this meeting end”?
September 12, 2012 at 7:07 am
We have a standing weekly time, but don’t usually meet weekly. We probably average about 2.5 meetings a month and they never exceed an hour. No food.
September 12, 2012 at 7:15 am
Once a month, usually 1-2 hours, over lunch. We have to provide lunch for one another. At the first meeting of the year faculty sign up for which month they want to be the lunch providers (usually in groups of 3 or 4). This means the quality of lunch differs a lot throughout the year. Sometimes it’s Thai food delivered, sometimes it’s a limp deli meats tray and some stale buns, sometimes it’s homemade soup and salad.
September 12, 2012 at 2:47 pm
Two (sometimes three) per semester. I will control my amusement at the thought that we might have funds to cater such things. Maybe 2 hours each max, but I usually skip out early as they conflict with my own lab meeting.
September 12, 2012 at 3:41 pm
Not academic but there were multiple weeks where 8-9 hours a day were meetings and it got to the point where I ripped the head off the asshole who scheduled lunchtime meetings without food and might possibly have said something like the next time there was a 2+ hour time block across lunchtime sans food meeting, I’d be dining on flesh. His.
It was so long ago, I couldn’t have been so impatient as to say something *that* uncivil, without a disconcerting smile anyway, but I do recall that the next few meetings there was food and then the lunchtime meetings stopped entirely. Win?
September 12, 2012 at 3:42 pm
Oh yes, and they’d be ambush scheduled. AKA: the night before at 8 pm or the morning of. More than one a week. *two thumbs down*
September 14, 2012 at 10:10 am
UGH.
September 12, 2012 at 5:03 pm
During term time? We meet one every month or six weeks as needed. If we’re fortunate enough to be hiring, we’ll meet more often.
Meetings might last 1.5-2 hours. Meetings aren’t catered but we have shared some beverages and chocolates more than once. Catering would be ruinous as we’d have to pay the university’s charges which run well over $10/person for light refreshments.
September 12, 2012 at 5:16 pm
We meet once per month for about 1.5 hours. Always catered lunch–food is good but not great.
September 13, 2012 at 6:43 pm
Where are these places that have money for catering?
September 12, 2012 at 7:06 pm
I have appointments in two departments. In one of them, faculty meetings are monthly at lunchtime, are catered with sangwiches, and always end within one hour. In the other, faculty meetings are irregular–probably averaging once every two months–are catered with sangwiches when at lunchtime, and can last more than two hours.
September 12, 2012 at 11:42 pm
Ah, now you’re making me wish I’d stuck it out and gone for an academic position. I had 6 hours of meetings today, and have 3 or 4 hours of them tomorrow, plus a seminar from a job candidate. This week is unusual, though. I think I usually only have 5 hours of meetings per weeks, plus another 2 hours of 1:1s with my staff.
At least I can make sure the meetings don’t fall over lunch and/or order in food if they do. And I run the vast majority of the meetings I’m in (they are project status meetings, and yes they are essential) so I can make sure they are effective and only go as long as they need to. It never ceases to amaze me how many otherwise intelligent people couldn’t run a decent meeting if their lives depended on it.
September 13, 2012 at 5:48 am
There’s more meetings than just the full faculty meeting. There’s also committee work. (And research/lab meetings, but those are the good kind.)
September 16, 2012 at 3:24 pm
Catered, you have got to be kidding. We meet once a semester. At that meeting the results of secret meetings the last semester, meetings pertaining to us, but to which we were not privy, are announced, and excuses are made.
September 19, 2012 at 8:56 pm
We meet once a month for an hour an a half. No food, but yes, prayer. Usually I’m praying to the universe, since I don’t really believe in god, and my thoughts run something like, “Get me the f out of here.” Unfortunately, a lot of what we’ve been talking about lately has had to do with courses I’m teaching, so I have been in the spotlight. It’s kind of tough.