Committees

Years ago there was a comedy record which I loved in which I first heard this little ditty.

You have all heard the saying that is true as well as witty,
That a camel is a horse that was designed by a committee!

Now I like camels. I used to take my nephew to the state fair (OK only once or twice but I still took him) and he rode a camel there. I rode one at the Great Pyramid in Egypt in 1976. They are useful (if nasty) animals and I find them fascinating. Bu this post is about Committees.

I was looking at one of "my" blogs this morning and he has the Senate Committee meetings listed for the week. (Note if you read this tomorrow you may have to scroll down on his blog to see the schedule but that is all right. He usually has something interesting to read.) It got me to thinking about how much work we put onto committees.

We really can't do everything ourselves and the larger the group we have the more we have to so we create committees to do things. They (being smaller) are supposed to be able to communicate more directly and be representative of all the various viewpoints in the larger group. Therefore they can design something (such as by-laws) and bring it back to the larger group and with some fine-tuning get something approve that will be satisfactory to all.

I have been on many committees in my life. Some of them accomplished what they were designed for and others did not. I have chaired some committees (Of course they always accomplished their goals (tongue firmly planted in cheek) and developed great programs. I have also been a part of committees that didn't do much.

The appointment of committees is very important. If you want your goals accomplished you need to be very careful to appoint committees that will have the necessary viewpoints represented and will also have the expertise to work together to acheive that goal. Sometimes that is a difficult balancing task.

Masonic Committees also visit a prospective member to begin the process of "enrollment" into our fraternity. They are not really there to see if the man is worthy to be a Mason (although that is a part of it) They are there to let him know that we are careful about who is allowed into our group and to begin to build the friendships that are essential to our brotherhood.

We also are accused of appointing committees to change light bulbs. In my lodge we have two committees to accomplish this task. The Property Management Committee and the Trustees. (Sometimes we sit in the dark.)

Generally it works well. (I just had to find a use for the NSS picture Sam sent me.)
So I want you to think about committees on which you have served. Then in the comments (Yes, I expect comments) I want you to write a note or two about why they worked or did not work. This is called a "committee of the whole" You see I want to get some ideas on my blog today but I really want to point out that this blog just became participatory. So far Larry is the only one who regularly writes comments. So, just for today, I am letting you, my loyal readers, write the important part of my blog. Just click on Comments below and when the form comes up put in a note or two about committees you have been on and tell about how they worked. I have readers from every continent except Africa (Come on Africa) and would love to get feedback from all over. Thanks. Love someone, Be loved and Hugs.

P.S. Hope this gets my Green Degrees Committees thinking about their tasks and that they will meet soon :~) j