Taking part in meetings

I've been trying to find positive quotations about holding a meeting but to my surprise, most of them portray meetings as useless and boring. Look at some of them:
"A meeting is an event where the minutes are kept and the hours are lost."
"A meeting is a gathering where people speak up, say nothing, then all disagree."
Why is there such a negative view of meetings? I'll be glad to read your comments.



You can also practise some useful expressions you can use in meetings. Do the exercises and press on the green button at the bottom of the page to check your answers
http://www.business-english.com/meetings/meetings1/exercise1.html
http://www.business-english.com/meetings/meetings1/exercise2.html
http://www.business-english.com/meetings/meetings1/exercise4.html