If I would have saved all my doodles from 24 years of corporate meetings, I probably could have wallpapered the Great Wall of China or opened a gallery for truly deranged depictions of everyday life.

I wonder if the ancients had meetings. Do you really think the incomparable Incas used a flip chart while building the most haunting and elaborate man-made habitat known to man, Machu Picchu? "OK, let's settle down. We only have a few minutes. Here's the latest progress report. I understand we had some trouble with those stones on the east side the other day. Any way we can get that moving by the end of the week? Anyone?" Not likely.

Now that I'm out of the hold of the corporate mother ship and run my own business, I call meetings only when I absolutely have to, when things get so overwhelming that it's time to call a time-out. It's truly revolutionary to not have "the regular weekly meeting" and to gather the troops only when I have a craving for eggplant pizza.

But that's not to say I am finally meeting-free.

My company belongs to a dozen or so local organizations. Some of them are networking groups, but others are groups that actually provide services on a voluntary basis. My calendar is filled with meetings involving these organizations -- luncheons, strategy meetings, meetings to plan other meetings, and so on. It's hard to run your own company when you spend a huge amount of time attending meetings. If you're not careful, you can easily spend more time doing work for the community than growing your own business.

Some meetings are fun to attend, like luncheons with a speaker who is actually breathing and dinners where you're bound to make a good business connection or two. Others, however, are a total waste of time and should be held only when there's actually something that needs to be done or announced. Regular every-other-Monday-of-the-month meetings tend to get old real quick. Time for more doodles.

Conference calls around the speaker phone are always a treat, too. First, it takes about 45 minutes to connect all parties. Then, once connected, no one knows who should speak first. I tend to shout during these meetings like when I make an overseas phone call. And not being able to see the other party is a bit weird. Part of the fun of a good meeting is observing how the other attendees react to words spoken or things thrown.

As long as humans feel the need to get together and share blueberry bagels and lukewarm coffee, meetings will be a part of business life for a long while to come. Pass the sugar and blank paper, please.

George Giokas is the president and CEO of StaffWriters Plus, a specialty agency that places writers in temporary and permanent positions with corporate and other employers. It also provides editorial consulting work. His database includes 2,500 writers and editors specializing in more than 60 categories. His Web site is located at www.staffwriters.com, and you can E-mail him at george@staffwriters.com.

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