Advantages and Disadvantages to the Library Moving to a 50 Minute Meeting Schedule

Advantages:

1. Briefer meetings will allow for more focused consideration of agenda items; if more time is needed, additional meetings with specific agendas can be set.

1. Meetings that end ten minutes prior to the hour (or half hour) will allow for transit time and comfort breaks between meetings.
2. Shorter meetings will help develop a culture of prompt arrival, engaged participation, and documented decision-making.

Disadvantages:

1. Some topics require lengthy discussion that might not be possible if meetings were limited to 50 minutes. Important viewpoints, and significant facts, might therefore end up being omitted/overlooked.
2. If meetings started late for some reason, the time for discussion would be even more limited. This would be less of a limitation if a meeting lasted, say, 90 minutes.
3. Shorter meetings might limit the time for, say, guest speakers or PowerPoint presentations.