I started to race for highway as I was seriously late. I was THE speaker at meeting, but my eyes were still swollen and teary. I reached over to grab a tissue from my purse. No purse. Oh boy. For first time in my life, I started to think about expression, "driving without a license." What exactly does that mean, anyway? You don't have a license at all, or you have one, but not on you? Hmm.

No purse also means no money, no plastic, no checks, no breakfast, no coffee. Amazingly, I arrived at restaurant only ten minutes late, but frazzled beyond belief. I was still thinking about Bark, wondering if she was okay. My hair looked like I had stuck my finger in a light socket. My eyes were practically swollen shut, and, as I got out of my car, I slipped on black ice, thus tearing a hole in my panty hose and bleeding from one knee. As I picked myself up I saw that in my haste, I had put on one black shoe and one blue shoe. At this point, I was pretty sure I should have stayed in bed.

I entered restaurant, and as I took my seat, I saw waitress approach with a pot of coffee. Knowing that I had no money on me, I covered coffee cup with my hand as a signal not to fill cup. My timing was off, however, and she proceeded to pour scalding coffee on my hand.

I had only been up for two hours and already a whole multitude of disasters had befallen me. Instead of my prepared speech on networking, I decided to stand up and tell my story to group. As I looked out on faces, I realized how grateful I was that these people were part of my network. I knew each one of them. We had all done business together. We had exchanged leads. We had become friends. I didn't have to explain to them that I'm usually much better put together. They knew that. Instead of frowning upon my shortcomings that morning, each person fought over who would buy my breakfast AND we had a good laugh.

It was a fairly new group, started just about a month before. As I stood before them, I realized we had reached a turning point. What had, only a short time before, been a roomful of strangers, had become a team, a network of people who genuinely cared about one another. We had helped each others businesses grow. We were working hard at bringing in referrals for one another. Everyone there that morning was pulling together to help me in my hour of need, and that is truly essence of networking. You see, networking is not only a contact sport; it is a team sport. Instead of taking care of just yourself, take care of people on your team. They, in turn, will take care of you. Even on a bad hair day.

The length of a meeting rises with square of number of people present.

>> Eileen Shanahan _______________________________________________________

3. Put one person in charge. It doesn't have to be most senior person, but whoever is delegated role of 'chair' should have sufficient force of character to keep everyone under control. The important rule is that everyone must know who is leader and must not try to 'take over.'

4. The meeting leader should circulate a detailed and unambiguous agenda to all delegates in good time. If research needs to be done or any items need to be brought to meeting, this should be clearly set out on agenda along with name of responsible party.

5. If agenda can't be put on one side of a sheet of paper, it is too long. Simplify it, or as a last resort, schedule two meetings.

6. The leader should open meeting with a clear announcement of what problems are.

7. It is very easy to get sidetracked. I have lost count of number of meeting I have attended where anything but problem in hand has been discussed. The worst offenders are clients who are 'in town' and have nowhere else to go once meeting is over. They try to stretch things out to fill their time. Do not let them get away with it. The meeting leader must be strong enough to keep group 'on message' and when everything has been discussed that needs to be, wind up clearly and cleanly.

8. Don't rush. Give each point time it deserves, but be aware that full agenda has to be covered and endless discussion on a relatively minor point is simply another waste of everyone's time.

9. If all delegates work in same building, call each one in to meeting only when they are needed. There is nothing worse than sitting through two hours of irrelevancies before getting to 'your bit.' But this happens all time. Allow and encourage people to come in and out as required.

10. Firmly, but politely ask all attendees to turn off their cell phones.

11. Give one person job of taking clear minutes. Make sure that a summary of meeting's decisions and actions is run through and agreed by everybody before breaking up. At same time, make sure that a clear action plan for each attendee is minuted. Distribute minutes as quickly as possible - certainly within 24 hours.

12. Schedule meetings before lunch or late afternoon. It is far more likely that they will finish on time. Always make a point of starting on time - even if all attendees have not arrived (unless there is a very good reason). If you are known to run a tight, effective meeting your colleagues will respect you for it and usually behave accordingly.

Follow these pointers and your meetings will work harder and more efficiently than ever before. And who knows, you might find you didn't really need a meeting after all.