Mandatory Meeting of the Minds

I thought I would take a moment to complain.

This evening, I am required to go to a "mandatory" meeting for all of the grad students in my department. The topic of the meeting is "professional development".

Here are a few reasons why I'd like to complain about this (here, on a blog, rather than to the grad advisor in charge, whose signature I need in a few weeks) :

• It's until 7pm, and I have an hour drive home.
• The woman in charge of the whole thing is hardly the model of professionalism.
• The students that actually need help with the whole grad school thing don't realize it and will not take this seriously.
• Perhaps too little, too late.
• How is it "madatory", if there are no consequences for not attending?

Thanks, I feel better now.