I used to work at a large church where Mondays were basically one long series of meetings. We’d have a general staff meeting first thing in the morning, then break off into meetings with other members of our respective ministry departments, and in the afternoon we would plan the weekly worship meeting. Some of these meetings—such as the worship planning meeting—were creative and fun, but the cumulative effect of all these meetings was tiring and even a little discouraging. At the end of the day, you felt like you had come away with a long list of to-dos without having gotten any of them accomplished. No matter how good your work environment, you likely feel the same way about meetings: yes, you recognize that they may be necessary, but they often feel tedious and counter-productive.
On the whole, my work for Accordance doesn’t require a lot of meetings. In a company where most of the development staff works from home, you tend to call meetings only when they are absolutely necessary. But these days, I’ve been in a lot of meetings, and frankly, I’m lovin’ every minute of it. That’s because these meetings have been about things like our new iPhone/iPad app and the next major upgrade to Accordance, both of which are feverishly being worked on right now. I’m loving these meetings because I get to see the latest developments, give my feedback, make suggestions, and see us come to a consensus which is more exciting than anything I would have dreamed up on my own. There are so many cool things in the works right now that I love being kept in the loop through these meetings.
Of course, the tough part about being involved in all these discussions is that I then get very impatient to see all our plans implemented and to play with all the new goodies. Those who read my blogs and tweets about upcoming developments complain that I’m teasing them. But I actually feel that same fevered anticipation even though—or rather, because—I already know what’s coming.
What’s more, I get impatient to tell you about all the cool stuff we’re working on. But because we know better than to talk too much about stuff that’s still in development (and therefore subject to last-minute changes), I have to bite my lip and keep quiet . . . for now.
Of course, if you can catch one of us in person, we have been known to give sneak peeks at stuff that’s in the works. So if you’re dying to be in the know, be sure to look for us at upcoming conferences, seminars, and of course, the Users’ Conference. I promise, you’ll love being at those meetings.