Monday, January 07, 2019

A Certain Committee



A certain committee, which shall be nameless, was quite protective of its responsibilities. Unfortunately, it was less than zealous in fulfilling them. It seldom took initiative in any particular area and instead chose to await requests for action. When those requests came, the committee, which had twelve members, would set a meeting to discuss the matter. This would take time due to scheduling difficulties. Even if a quorum were achieved the key question was always which committee members were present. Out of the twelve members, only three did most of the work and, of those three, one did 80 percent or more of the heavy lifting. The other members were content merely to show up and voice opinions.

Whether by design or happenstance, the committee usually took partial action, regardless of how many meetings were spent pawing over a topic. Needed segments were frequently missing, basic questions were finessed, formatting was sporadic, and no one could remember when the committee produced an understandable product that could be addressed without further work.

There was one position, however, upon which the committee members unanimously and vigorously agreed: no one else could do their job.

And, if the question was restricted to the way that they did it, they may have been right.

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