Whilst attending a larger in-person meeting with my husband recently, I noticed the following:
- All phones were put away at the beginning and I didn't see any again until after we'd finished.
- Nearly everyone had a laptop with them, but also a notebook.
- There was a presentation with slides, but the majority of the time was then spent working with using sticky notes on two white boards.
As it's been quite some time since I attended a meeting like this (due to both the pandemic and also changing to a work from home role), it was just interesting to see this, but sadly no one at the meeting had a ringbound organiser.
However, I was delighted to see one in the wild during breakfast at the hotel the following morning! As the gentleman was sitting further away, I wasn't sure exactly what it was, but I could clearly see the slim ring mechanism and it looked a little like a Plotter, but without the metal spine and with an elastic closure.
Have you seen a ringbound organiser in the wild recently?
And as always on Fridays, please feel free to discuss anything organiser related. I hope that you have a great weekend.
I have been in committee member for a UK organisation since 1994, in those very early days we met face to face in London at London House near Russell Square in a grand meeting room which was part of the University of London!!
ReplyDeleteI those early years over 30 years ago, only one or two members had mobile phones and use was very restricted. There might have been a laptop but no internet access. The papers for the meeting would be distributed by Royal Mail ahead of the meeting.
Over time more people brought phones with them and laptops became common sight.
Eventually nearly everyone attending had a laptop, but because of poor battery life a mains distribution network of extension leads was commonly used under the table to power everything! People still kept written notes though.
By 2010 I no longer attended the meetings in person as it was too time consuming to travel back to UK for a 4 hour meeting, so I would join in via Skype!!
When COVID arrived everyone was on Skype which made things easier for me!! An interesting side effect since all of our meetings are on line.... the meetings have become shorter, the last one was only 45 minutes long!!
I'm standing in for the Chairman tomorrow I will see if I can beat the 45 minute record!!
Good luck with sub 45 mins. I find any committee meeting sub an hour is great.
DeleteWe regularly use a 'post-it wall' for idea development (I refuse to use the word 'ideation'...). We also use an online equivalent for remote collaborative meetings.
ReplyDeleteWe used to have a large, open plan meeting room (the 'Design Centre's, with bean bags, toys and various magnetic whiteboard shapes) with floor to ceiling whiteboards around all walls. Sadly, when we moved to new offices, The Management decided that was unnecessary, and our meeting rooms lack the whiteboard space they could have. Even though the falls are mostly white emulsion...
In work meetings, you mostly see A4 and A5. notebooks, usually bound ones, although a few people have a tablet (with keyboard) and some of the younger ones use their laptops. The rest of us only bring our laptops if we think we might need to share some data.
ReplyDeleteI work at a US public college and many of my colleagues use bound notebooks. Something along the lines of a large Moleskine is the most common, with spirals running a close second.
ReplyDeleteEarlier this week I saw my first ring-bound planner in the six years I've worked there: I went to talk to our grant writer, and he had a Daytimer open on his desk. I held up my A5 Malden and said that it was nice to see a fellow "true believer."