Time is tight … It is time we eat first and talk later

Time. It has been written about, sung about and even movies have been made about it – time machines etc.

Time is a concept we cannot touch, draw or feel. But it governs us completely – what time we get up, catch the bus to school, go to work, go to lunch, the time to meet a friend, the time the big game starts, the time the wedding starts and even the time a funeral gets underway.

It is also one of the most abused things around. Take almost any event in Endumeni and surrounds. Should the invite say 10am this is only a suggestion. If you get there at 9.55am in anticipation of being in time, you will usually (9 out of 10 times in any event) find that you are about an hour and a half early. Even the Mayoral Gala Dinner started well over an hour late.

Not good business practice. A shop that says its business hours are from 8am to 5pm cannot open at 9.30am. If it does, it will soon close.
So why don’t events start on time? Well, one of the excuses given is that ‘oh, we are waiting for the people to arrive then we will start’. But the invite says 10am and now it is 10.46am?

People come late because they know the programme will start late. The organisers start late because they know the people will come late – and so the perpetual decline into a very frustrating wait for those polite enough to drop everything and make sure they arrive on time.

So how do we fix it? Ok, so we need to get the people to the event on time so the organisers can start on time. Normally, these event goodies include on their programmes – usually at the bottom in bold print: Lunch, dinner or refreshments – whatever the case may be. Turn the pyramid upside down. Serve the food first. Everyone will be there at 10am and the organiser can start. Let them eat while the welcoming etc are been done. Some may try and duck once they have eaten but make sure they are so stuffed they would rather sit and relax. This will help everyone.

The event will end at a ‘normal time’ because it started on time. Newspaper people will not be left frustrated – these guys always have a myriad of things to do and can get quite snarky when their time is wasted due to lackadaisical organising. So remember, next time you are organising a wedding – get the guests to eat first and then lock them in the hall.
Problem solved.