Tuesday, February 16, 2016
Why I Never Cancel Meetings
I never cancel meetings because of low numbers. Whether for business or pleasure.
A Toastmasters International forum on LinkedIn recently discussed the question of cancelling meetings because of a low turnout being anticipated.
I would only cancel a meeting because conditions were dangerous and I didn't want people to risk their health or their cars. It's terribly disappointing to go to a meeting and find it was cancelled and all the members were emailed but as a guest you weren't informed. You can have clear motorways but dangerous side roads, or the opposite.
One meeting was cancelled by email. I asked somebody who lived in the same road as the venue to put a notice on the door giving my phone number and saying that anybody turning up should phone me. One person turned up, keen to rehearse her speech so I invited her over to my house. We had a wonderful evening. She rehearsed her speech and I rehearsed mine.
I've had two or three other committee meetings with only two or three people. I recall one when we got a lot done and phoned a third party to get more done.
Another time two latecomers joined the original two of us. We had a great foursome which would have been cancelled if we'd given up earlier.
When I was a postgraduate, I started a postgraduate book group. At the first meeting only two people turned up apart from me and the speaker. I phoned the events organiser and apologised and said the group was not a success and cancel the next two meetings we'd planned. He said, "I can't do that. I've booked three newspaper advertisements. They sold me three for the price of two.
You can't get people traveling all the way across London to meetings and then cancel them. Even if only one of two people turn up, if the event is advertised you must run it. We have the building and the room and it brings our whole organisation into disrepute if people go to events which get cancelled.
The next week we had four people plus the speaker and myself. A total of six.
The third week we had eight people plus the speaker and myself, a total of ten. I told the building's event manager, and he said, "We did tell them it would be a course of ten books. If you've got ten people, that's not bad for a new group. I won't bother with any more ads, just see how it goes."
The following week we had a total of 18, then 24, too many for the room, latecomers in the corridor trying to squeeze in. We had a busy little group. What a success. That ran for a few years.
The experience of running the university book group gave me the courage to later start another group with a friend who lived in the same street, meeting at people's homes. I wanted to start a literature group. He wanted to start a music group. So we ran a Music and Literature group.
The group carried on for several years. Many years afterwards I would go to events and meet people who told me they'd been at one of the meetings.
I recently bumped into a girl who reminded me that she'd met her husband to be at the first meeting. They were still married.
What a good thing I had not cancelled the postgraduate group after that first meeting.
Angela Lansbury, author and speaker
A Toastmasters International forum on LinkedIn recently discussed the question of cancelling meetings because of a low turnout being anticipated.
I would only cancel a meeting because conditions were dangerous and I didn't want people to risk their health or their cars. It's terribly disappointing to go to a meeting and find it was cancelled and all the members were emailed but as a guest you weren't informed. You can have clear motorways but dangerous side roads, or the opposite.
One meeting was cancelled by email. I asked somebody who lived in the same road as the venue to put a notice on the door giving my phone number and saying that anybody turning up should phone me. One person turned up, keen to rehearse her speech so I invited her over to my house. We had a wonderful evening. She rehearsed her speech and I rehearsed mine.
I've had two or three other committee meetings with only two or three people. I recall one when we got a lot done and phoned a third party to get more done.
Another time two latecomers joined the original two of us. We had a great foursome which would have been cancelled if we'd given up earlier.
When I was a postgraduate, I started a postgraduate book group. At the first meeting only two people turned up apart from me and the speaker. I phoned the events organiser and apologised and said the group was not a success and cancel the next two meetings we'd planned. He said, "I can't do that. I've booked three newspaper advertisements. They sold me three for the price of two.
You can't get people traveling all the way across London to meetings and then cancel them. Even if only one of two people turn up, if the event is advertised you must run it. We have the building and the room and it brings our whole organisation into disrepute if people go to events which get cancelled.
The next week we had four people plus the speaker and myself. A total of six.
The third week we had eight people plus the speaker and myself, a total of ten. I told the building's event manager, and he said, "We did tell them it would be a course of ten books. If you've got ten people, that's not bad for a new group. I won't bother with any more ads, just see how it goes."
The following week we had a total of 18, then 24, too many for the room, latecomers in the corridor trying to squeeze in. We had a busy little group. What a success. That ran for a few years.
The experience of running the university book group gave me the courage to later start another group with a friend who lived in the same street, meeting at people's homes. I wanted to start a literature group. He wanted to start a music group. So we ran a Music and Literature group.
The group carried on for several years. Many years afterwards I would go to events and meet people who told me they'd been at one of the meetings.
I recently bumped into a girl who reminded me that she'd met her husband to be at the first meeting. They were still married.
What a good thing I had not cancelled the postgraduate group after that first meeting.
Angela Lansbury, author and speaker
Labels: cancel, literature, music, newspaper advertisements, postgraduate
