Tim, I need you in a meeting in five minutes.

I am king of the no-notice-meeting (meeting of which you get little or no advance notice)


Here are some tips for attending a no-notice-meeting:

Don't be the first to speak; you have to find out first if you are with friends or foes.
Follow the lead of the people you know as long as they are people you trust aren't going to get in trouble for what they are saying.
When directly asked for your opinion use "I have some ideas but I'll have to run them by so-n-so to make certain we haven't promised anything to somebody else," as much as possible.
Also use:
"That's something we can look at."
"I think in the next scheduled meeting we will be talking more about specifics. I think this meeting is to make certain we're all on the same page."
"I'll look into it."

Mostly, I'll sit quiet and let folks know I'm giving a lot of attention to the matter at hand by nodding or head shaking at all the appropriate times while taking notes which mostly consist of the date and names of folks at the meeting.

If I don't know what's important while taking notes, I'll transcribe any phrase that has a number or date mentioned.