I've been having a year-long debate/disagreement/whatever with the current president of a volunteer charity chapter I'm involved in. There's a lot of back story that I won't get in to for simplicity sake, but what it comes down to is this:
You're in charge of a meeting or presentation. 3-4 days ahead of the event, you email an agenda out to the expected attendees. At the actual event, do you..
1) Expect that all of your attendees printed copies of the agenda and have brought them along with them, or
2) Assume that most attendees did not print copies, and have extras available
He is firmly set that #1 is the "right" way. His justification is people should come prepared, and in his line of work (he is a speech pathologist for the regional education agency....), providing copies is "enabling a dysfunction" (In the email where he stated that, he actually did go as far as to say anyone that comes to a meeting unprepared is dysfunctional.) I make the argument that you cannot have an efficient and effective meeting if everyone there doesn't know what's going on.
Now granted, he's close to retirement, and I've only been in my career 13 years. But my experience, any presenter or meeting organizer that did not provide an agenda for a meeting would be viewed as unprepared and unprofessional. Heck, some of the meetings I go to, they post an agenda prior to registration, mail a hard copy out with the registration confirmation, and hand you one at the door - that way any last minute changes are guaranteed to be on it.
You're in charge of a meeting or presentation. 3-4 days ahead of the event, you email an agenda out to the expected attendees. At the actual event, do you..
1) Expect that all of your attendees printed copies of the agenda and have brought them along with them, or
2) Assume that most attendees did not print copies, and have extras available
He is firmly set that #1 is the "right" way. His justification is people should come prepared, and in his line of work (he is a speech pathologist for the regional education agency....), providing copies is "enabling a dysfunction" (In the email where he stated that, he actually did go as far as to say anyone that comes to a meeting unprepared is dysfunctional.) I make the argument that you cannot have an efficient and effective meeting if everyone there doesn't know what's going on.
Now granted, he's close to retirement, and I've only been in my career 13 years. But my experience, any presenter or meeting organizer that did not provide an agenda for a meeting would be viewed as unprepared and unprofessional. Heck, some of the meetings I go to, they post an agenda prior to registration, mail a hard copy out with the registration confirmation, and hand you one at the door - that way any last minute changes are guaranteed to be on it.