Finally a meeting that surpassed my childhood expectations

FROM MY FRONT PORCH

Sam Houston is the publisher of the Hood County News. He is also an actor, author, playwright, performer and entertainment producer/promoter.

When I was a child, I thought meetings had to be the coolest thing in the world! Mind you, I had never been to a “meeting” myself, but I had seen meetings on TV. They took place in a large, well-adorned room, full of men dressed in suits, some of whom were smoking cigars. Attractive secretaries brought stacks of paper to the large table where the participants sat, and it was clear the subject of the meeting was always significant.

While I had only seen “a meeting” on TV, my father — who was a school administrator — would go to a school board meeting once a month. Dad would come home from work and instead of having his evening libation, would go in and shave and then change his shirt so he would look his best for the occasion.

On board meeting night, Dad always seemed distracted. He spoke and interacted even less than usual. I didn’t know exactly where his meetings were held, but I knew sometimes he would not get home until well after I went to bed. The next morning at breakfast, my mother would comment Dad had not gotten home till 11 or some other late-night hour, wanting us children to appreciate the effort he was making to earn a living for the family. I was sure impressed. I had a dad who was important enough to go to a “meeting”!

I must admit, I kept this childhood illusion about meetings until I was out of college. Once I joined a Fortune 500 company and attended my first corporate meeting, I found out meetings were not all they were cracked up to be. The pretty girls bringing stacks of paper in and out of the meeting room simply did not exist. The older employees clearly had lost all sense of excitement for the event, and would simply meander in, sit down, and bide their time until the meeting was over.

While some of the information in the meeting was important to know, it sure seemed like the manager took a long time to get the message across. As my time with the company grew, and the number of meetings I attended grew exponentially, my sense of excitement disappeared completely. Maybe my upbringing was deficient because there was little to no fun or excitement in any corporate meeting I ever attended. I had been sold a bill of goods!

The subject of meetings is on my mind because today I participated in an important planning and staff meeting at the newspaper. It included the leadership of all the Hyde Media Group newspapers. We talked about changes and improvements we are making in the newspapers including ways to expand our coverage, increase our social media presence, and how to generate a top-notch digital platform through our websites.

As a group, we threw away the “newspaper” playbook and imagined what a newspaper should look like, not just today but in 10 years. It was the first time I was excited in a meeting in a long, long time. I am lucky to work with some extraordinary people and they came up with idea after idea to make our papers more readable, interesting and entertaining. This meeting made me feel like we are on the cutting edge of “newspapering” and while I am pleased with the current product we produce, what we have coming is going to knock the socks off our readers and our advertisers.

I was feeling so good after the meeting, I wanted to light up a cigar like the men I watched on TV so many years ago. I can’t wait to put our plans into action! You are gonna love it!

Thought for the day: Meetings move at the pace of the slowest mind in the room.

Until next time.

sam@hcnews.com | 817-573-7066, ext. 260