Why would it need to be focussed, it’s not a business meeting. Generally, if a thread continues to be useful and interesting then people will respond to it or, if not, they don’t.
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Er, your reply makes no sense whatsoever.
This is an internet forum, a fairly relaxed one at that. It is not necessary for the running of the forum for every topic to stay precisely on track nor every question to be neatly answered and resolved.
That has nothing to do with anyone’s attitude to open discussion.
Your experience with the tax authorities sounds horrendous - but, talking of unfocussed posts and replies I have to say that I was left puzzled by the purpose of your original post - and I’m not surprised some people concluded it was mainly to promote your book.
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There is a door behind you, marked ‘exit’…
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Did someone mention coffee? I had a cup once is a twee little café somewhere. I can’t remember with whom, when or where, it’s an age thing.
Either that or I’ve been stung too many times by cat-eating asian hornets.
oops, drifting!
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Gosh John, I’m impressed. you’ve managed to chair/attend business meetings that were focussed. 
We could have done with you in our Monday morning meetings when we were reviewing our work load and saying what was coming up for the week. Dire! Always dire!
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I still hate having to sit through such a Meeting.
Nowadays (with the leeway granted to my great age) I do sometimes “insist” that the claptrap stops and we get back down to the serious stuff… 
and I see relieved expressions on many of the faces of those sitting around the table… 
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Just rude and self important - enjoy your book signings 
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There is a successful school of thought that any meeting should not last longer than an hour and preferably only 30 minutes.
The reasons are drift and snooze. So, it’s most effective to make your input within the first 7 minutes.
Then 
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That of course assumes that you are able to get a word in edgeways in the first seven minutes.
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I got to the point that I would flat out refuse to join any meeting without an agenda, wouldn’t produce a set of actions that could actually be achieved by the team assigned them before the heat death if the universe and was scheduled to last more than 30 minutes.
Americans were the worst for this, especially the Californians that couldn’t seem to grasp that most of the folks on these calls lived on GMT and CET, not PST.
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Oh you found it then.
Well done.
With the benefit of being not only elderly but a furriner…
Despite almost everyone talking at the same time, I do NOT do that.
I raise my hand high in the air until folk notice, chat slows down and I’m granted the right to speak …
Whereupon I ask what on earth is going on (more or less) as I “thought we were discussing/debating … blah blah blah… but we seem to be talking about bloh bloh bloh …”
“or am I misunderstanding?” 
Hurrah… some folk look embarrassed some giggle… but we get back on track (for a while…)
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Wasn’t that from Steve Jobs? - Who also advised attendees that it as OK to leave if they felt the meeting wasn’t productive.
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Thats where I used to differ as I asked people to leave if they were not being productive
Steve Jobs’ rules are excellent as also Jeff Bezos’ not asking more people than you can feed with two pizzas 
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Yes but meetings were always a great excuse not to do any work🤣
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This chat is becoming less and less relevant. 
(Thankfully)
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Oops… I posted this in the wrong thread, so moving it to where I had intended to originally share it.
So two. One if I’m in the meeting
That’s perhaps too few but meetings tend to be increasingly unproductive as the number of participants so if you go and look for good practice advice you will probably find it says 3-7 people max.
Which everyone then ignores and hold massive meetings.
It’s a bit like being told, in a psychology lecture scheduled for a full hour, that most people’s attention span is 30 minutes.
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Meetings with French people (at least those mainly consisting of the French elderly) dealing with commune matters are i n t e r m i n a b l e. They are out for the evening and a good gossip and everyone has to have their say.
I sat through one that was planning the coming fete des assos and it took half an hour for the chairman and two members from the floor to discuss the implications of having the gates of the parking area for the assos to be opened or closed. 
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