Meetings

I have to tell you...there is nothing worse than meeting just for the sake of having a meeting. In my mind, it is without a doubt the biggest waste of time and money EVER.

It happened to me this weekend.

I had to go to Atlanta for a NCAA baseball umpires meeting.

It is always nice to get to see some of the guys you work with outside of the season. And it isn't that I didn't want to see them. It is just that the meeting was a complete and utter waste of a day. Not to mention the money that it takes to go.

Every year, the NCAA Umpire Improvement Program organizes meetings around the country. This year the meetings are being held in Dallas, Atlanta, Philadelphia and Los Angeles.

You go and sit in a room and listen to the so-called leaders of the group talk about how to do your job.

What it boiled down to was sitting in a big room with about 400 other ego-driven personalities and listening to what amounted to 5 minutes of good information, a 45 minute talk about how the NCAA was going to fleece the group out of an extra $100 per man, watching videos of plays and how we need to get along better with coaches.

For all of this amazing excitement, I had to spend $178 for a round trip air ticket to Atlanta, a $4 round trip MARTA train ride from the airport to the meeting place and back, and spend a day away from Brenda--waking up at 4:15 am to catch a 6 am flight and catching the return flight at 10pm...arriving back home around midnight--and what did I get for all that???

NOTHING.

I am sure the NCAA guys mean well. They want to feel like they keep us in the loop on things and they want to make us feel a part of the process.

Fact of the matter is--we didn't need to have the meeting.

You know how many rules changes were this year that we needed to discuss? None.

I know some guys that went and spent two night in a hotel for around $250 PLUS their travel and food to get the same NOTHING.

I guess I should feel fortunate that I didn't spend so much money huh?

Meetings should be productive. Meetings should come to some sort of a resolution on how you are going to go about doing things. Hell I didn't even SEE an agenda. Although I am sure there was one--somewhere.

I am coming to a point with all of this. Ready? Here it is.

I owe the NCAA a big debt of gratitude. Because what I know NOW will help me in the future in my business.

DON'T SCHEDULE MEETINGS JUST FOR THE SAKE OF A MEETING.

It isn't worth the effort of time and money.

I realize more and more as I go along that my time IS money. If I go somewhere and lose a day of work, or even a day I could have just relaxed around the house to recharge my battery to get ready for another day---It costs me. Either money or time.

And those two things are something that just don't grow on trees.