Government Meeting Calculator

Ever left a meeting where the only outcome was scheduling another meeting?

In government, we typically account for every dollar of grant money, every travel expense reimbursement, every office supply order. But nobody really accounts (or counts) for the standing meeting, especially the one that has been on the calendar so long no one remembers who started it.

This calculator tool puts a number on it.

Add the people in the room, pick their pay leve, set the length. You will see what the meeting costs per session, and what it costs per year if it repeats.

Works for state, county, municipal, school district, and federal employees. Pay levels are pre-filled from national public-sector wage data. Adjust them if you know better.

Your meeting costs $xxx per year

Now the harder part: doing something about it without bruising the person who owns the meeting.

Subscribe free and I'll send you the Meeting Audit, a one-page worksheet for deciding which meetings to keep, shrink, or end, and the three scripts for raising the subject safely. Twenty years in state government taught me that how you say it diplomatically and not bureaucratically.

If the number surprises you, I'd like to hear it in the comments.