Ode to a Committee

A common organizational hazard is assignment to a committee.  Committees are notorious for having difficulty arriving at productive conclusions.  "A camel is a horse designed by a committee" is the maxim coined by Vogue magazine in 1958.

So I share this ode, titled simply "The Committee":

O give me your pity, I'm on a committee
Which means that from morning to night,
We attend and amend, and contend and defend
Without a conclusion in sight.
We confer and concur, we defer and demur
And reiterate all of our thoughts.
We revise the agenda with frequent addenda,
And consider a load of reports.
We compose and propose, we suppose and oppose,
And the points of procedure are fun;
But though various notions are brought up as motions,
There's terribly little gets done.
We resolve and absolve, but we never dissolve,
Since it's out of the question for us.
What a shattering pity to end our committee.
Where else could we make such a fuss?

(Attributed to Leslie Lipson, Copyright Phong Ngo RG APR99)