When you are NOT leading the meeting

On the same theme, I want to address meeting participants. Over the past two days I went to far too many meetings. I can't wait until Monday when school starts and I can do some real work. Anyhow... suppose you are in a meeting as a participant, look around the room and count the number of participants (let's stick with the algebra theme). If there are x participants, then you should not, in most instances, participate more than 1/x of the discussion time. In the meetings over the past few days a few people dominated the discussions pretty much just to hear themselves talk. In most meetings it is better to sit quietly listening and thinking. In the few instances when you talk try to make it well thought out, meaningful, and brief.