Recently I’ve found the need to have to ‘book people” to ensure that I meet up with the people who are near and dear to me.
If you’re meeting one person, it’s generally easier than arranging to meet lots of people. However, if he/she has kids; their timetable is often moulded around clubs, school, homework etc. Thus it becomes harder.
If several of you are meeting up; one needs to consider each other’s working hours, those who live with the person you’re meeting, dependants, location etc.
Now when the meet is purely social, it can be random, infrequent and perhaps arranged spontaneously. Perhaps if some can’t make it, it’s no biggie as they’ll be there the next time. Unless of course, your lifestyle and desire allows socialising to be your priority so you’re always ‘there’.
Now when trying to meet up with family, I think people try to be as inclusive as possible. Thus unless they’re ‘usually free’, the event needs to be planned in advance and ‘booked’ so that time is set aside for the family to get together.
I know that some people don’t like this approach.
It’s too businesslike
It’s too much planning in advance
It’s too rigid
However, what’s the alternative?
Some members of the family work (certain) weekends so we’d want to avoid them.
Others are booked up with things in advance so we need to give them notice to make sure they can be there. (If they want to be of course!)
Others like to know when they will have quality time with the family so that they can make sure they are there. Thus they need some notice.
The need to consult so many diaries leads to the need to ‘make appointments’ in advance and ‘set’ dates so that we can be as inclusive as possible whilst ensuring that everyone feels as if they have enough notice to have a choice in whether they want to be there or not.
It all points to deciding a date in advance and communicating it to all who need to know. Right? Is there another way?
The thing is; this is just about dates. If the event involves food, the host or families will need to plan what to make/buy if catering out, shop accordingly if food’s being made at home, set aside time to cook, arrange for travel arrangements etc.
So how do you get away from the ‘appointment’ making system?
