Oh, give me your pity!
I’m on a committee,
Which means that from morning to night.

We attend and amend
And contend, and defend
Without a conclusion in sight.

We confer and concur,
We defer and demur,
We reiterate all of our thoughts.

We revise the agenda
With frequent addenda
And consider a load of reports.

We compose and propose,
We suppose and oppose,
And the points of procedure are fun,

But though various notions
Are brought up as motions
There’s terribly little gets done.

We resolve and absolve;
But we never dissolve,
Since it’s out of the question for us

To bring our committee
To end like this ditty,
Which ends with a period – thus.

– Anonymous, cited in Helen B. Schwartzman, The Meeting: Gatherings in Organizations and Communities (New York: Plenum Press, 1989), 207.