  |
|
|
|
Index Interviews: Peter Lance Lyn Hamilton Co-writing Committee-itis The Power of Repetition, Part II Before You Write Return to This Issue's Index Return to Homepage Subscribe
|
|
Co-writing Committee-itisBy Hazel Edwards & Jean Roberts
Writing books is usually a solitary occupation. A successful collaboration, based on equal but different skills and resources, is preferable because you have two imaginations working, and it's fun, especially when the book is a humorous challenge to a generic subject like committees. And you can have coffee breaks. Jean had been conscious of the time and energy wasted by members' frustrations with meandering committees. Hazel supplied the title Committee-itus and the concept of a virus infecting the body. The aim in writing the book was to inject humor while at the same time providing practical checklists and strategies to make committees -- and the experience of committee membership -- more successful: and to "keep it simple". Although we'd known each other for years, and independently authored many books, we'd never written together before. We decided the use the medical analogy of a "virus" infecting a committee, and that our strategies in the book were a way of immunizing against the threat. Having a doctor in the family was an asset for checking the medical terminology. We had great fun thinking up examples relating to various parts of the body. Then we created "Iris the Virus". Checklists for symptoms, common complaints, remedies and even post mortems for "dead" committees are included. To help the reader identify the presence or absence of known symptoms, we've included two separate surveys in Section 1 -- the first is to check for signs of the Committee-itis virus in your own body, and the second is to check for signs of the virus in your committee meetings Our decision to offer a number of open ended satirical scenarios for use as classroom, training, workshop or conference activities provides opportunities for committee members and others to role play various committee experiences with a prepared script. Examples include a Mt Paperwork Whodunnit script (with an optional meal), Hat Tricks which enables "dressing up" with hats, and a Minutes of Time script set in another world where the currency is satisfaction rather than time or money. This enables a different point of view on daily problems associated with committees. It's always helpful at conferences or workshops to have a fun activity that is closely related to the topic or theme of the occasion. Through humor, the participants learn from a different perspective and are then able to apply improvements into their workday situation. For example, secondary students will be able to achieve an effortless transfer of skills and strategies to improve the many meetings in which they are encouraged to participate in their school and after-school lives. As a playwright, Hazel's experience in scripting for theatre, TV and classrooms was relevant for the Committee-itis workshop and conference scripts. Our websites have additional information about workshops or talks: www.netspace.net.au/~hazele and www.jeanroberts.com.au are our respective web sites. Jean also issues a free quarterly newsletter. Committee-itis workshops are planned nationally for 2003. Along with humor, we decided to offer practical tools, checklists and strategies for readers to immediately try with their own committees. We also identified 39 different kinds of committees that people of various ages and experience can be involved with, and these are presented as a collage at the front of the book. We even defined a committee as "Any group of two or more people gathered around a table of any size, who talk among themselves, handle reams of paper and meet at regular or irregular intervals." To enable readers to recognize the presence and effect of the devious Iris the Virus, we've taken a range of common committees, and shown how each can be infected without even knowing it. These include:
|
