One room, four meetings

Over the last couple of years, I have attended regular meetings with a group of colleagues who share my interest in computer education. After two years, I've realized that my colleagues and I are all in the same room, at the same time, but there are four different meetings going on at once. Only one of the meetings is about education research. As an education researcher, I often find the other meetings frustrating, but I have also come to see that there are positives to all four types of meetings. Each meeting has its weaknesses, including the research meeting, and these respective weaknesses are ameliorated by the other meeting types.