First Committee Meeting

   So Phoenix Sister Cities has 9 different sister cities throughout the county.  Each of these cities has a committee here in Phoenix that meets on a monthly basis to promote that city here in Arizona.  These committees do a lot of different things, but basically they are a connection between Phoenix and the Sister City.
   Last night I attended my first committee meeting, which was with the Calgary, Canada Committee.  It was a very informal type of meeting, held at a Bar and Grille.  The members ate, drank, and discussed the meeting agenda.  I won't get into specifics of the meeting, because the most interesting part of the experience was today when one of my supervisors talked to us interns about what we thought of the meeting.  The main point we all brought up was how informal it was compared to other Phoenix Sister Cities meetings.  Apparently the chair of this committee wants to keep the Calgary meetings very informal and social because last year the committee had barely any members, no one wanted to do anything, and the committee was on the verge of becoming an inactive committee.  So, his approach has been to ease people back into the meetings in a fun way, that will encourage people to get more involved.
   Before our supervisor explained this to us, the interns and I were a little confused about why it was so casual.  But having the explanation behind it, I think the chair of the committee has a really good way of going about business.  Maybe its not the most efficient committee within our organization, but as we're waiting for life to be brought back into it, I think its alright that the committee is still a little informal and inefficient.  If people are interested and things are getting done, it seems that it will just take some time to get back to the place where the committee used to be.
   So, while I was sitting in the meeting I didn't feel like I was learning a lot - it felt like a group of people getting together rather than a formal meeting.  But, having the explanation behind it after the fact, I actually learned quite a bit!