It is clear here that meetings mean different things to different rungs on the corporate ladder.

As a DBA, if I call a meeting, then it is technical in nature. My meetings are not too long (15-30 mins) and they require a resolution, usually because I am about make a change that has potential consequences for other people. For example, if I intend drop what seem to be non-performing indexes, then I will inform the head of the development team to inform him of this, in case these dropped indexes will be necessary for the next release. I will inform the testing team of the changes that require testing and so on, but not in the same meeting. I could send e-mails, I suppose, but I never know if they've been read or even assimilated. Face-to-face works best when change is involved.

However, the higher up the corporate ladder one goes, the more one needs to know what the people under you are doing. One needs to steer the corporate ship in the right direction. I am thankful that I have only one formal meeting per week (DBA meeting) and a couple of technical conversations per week with people from other departments (developers, sysadmins, business analysts). No man is an island.

On a final note, I leave you all with a reference to my favourite news source, The Onion: http://www.theonion.com/articles/takecharge-cando-guy-makes-horrible-decisions,717/