AIM meetings are a waste of time...

AIM [Advanced Information Management] is a research laboratory that i am currently part of. it is 1 of 3 (soon to be four) research laboratories in the Computer Science Department, at the University of Cape Town. every wednesday, there is a meeting which all the members of the research group attend (or are supposed to attend). more often than not, we usually do a round-robin, each introducing ourselves, our research as well as our supervisors (of course, for the benefit of all the attendees that are setting foot for the first time in the AIM meeting or for visitors --- yes, we usually have those) . a crucial element of the meeting though is that each of us, still in a round-robin manner, need to report back on what it is that we have been doing since that last AIM meeting (the previous wednesday) --- this is where most people fabricate their doings, trying to save face.

now coming to my point, in all that i have said above about the AIM meetings, is there an obvious redundancy? (besides the AIM meeting as a whole?) there is only one reason i attend these meetings: the group is headed by my supervisor and he is always there meaning that it is only logical that i too be there, for if i am not there, he will ask me "why were you not in the AIM meeting?" during our meeting which coincidentally falls directly after an AIM meeting.

maybe it's all the anger of doing one thing for two years (a MSc degree) coming out, i'm not sure, but i do know that AIM meetings are weak!