Throughout my local government career I attended many meetings and during most of them I could be seen doodling. Contrary to how it may have appeared such doodling actually helped me to concentrate rather than demonstrated boredom or any lack of interest. The filing clerks used to be amused by the fact that they could always tell which were the agendas I’d used.
I frequently attended Committee and Council meetings in Knowsley’s Council Chamber and ‘my’ seat was directly in front of and below that of the Chairman. On one occasion after a particularly gruelling meeting the Chairman came over to me and said “I knew you were worried about whether you’d get your report approved tonight.” Having thought I’d been my usual undemonstrative self I asked him how he knew. “Your doodlings were all angular – not a single butterfly!!” he said laughingly. Until then I had failed to realise that the Chairman of any meeting was in an ideal position to gaze down on my scribbling.
Using that criteria this meeting at Merseyside Arts was presumably a fairly relaxing one. It looks from its extensive nature as though it was also a long one!
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