The last picture for the summer of a bunch of farmers sitting around in a meeting. For a few months anyways. When I was younger,  I used to think that meetings were a complete waste of time. I would rather be out doing--taking action. But I've come to realize that meetings are, let's say, a necessary evil. 

It reminds me of a movie, Canadian Bacon, starring John Candy  as sheriff  Bud Boomer. In the movie,  a rebel band of angry Americans decide they are going to invade Canada. As Sheriff Boomer rallys his troops at Niagara Falls, on the eve of  their invasion, he says, "There is a time to think, and a time to act, and this my friends, is no time to think."

So it seems  to me that there are occasions when ideas need to be shared, differences need to be resolved, plans need to be made, resources need to be accounted for. At this point in my life I would say that meetings are not inherently a waste of time, but it is still true that a lot of time is wasted in  meetings. Meetings, just like anything else in life require certain skills and knowledge in order to do them right. That is one of the benefits of these participatory tools I keep talking about. They can turn a random shouting match into an exciting breeding ground for new ideas. They're just one small piece of a much bigger puzzle, but they help at least take some of that time wasting out of the equation.