Chronic Disorganization Venting

I know not everyone has strong organizational skills. I understand and accept it. But is it too much to ask for adults to exhibit a bare minimum? Let me give you a few examples of what I mean.

My daughter is friends with a girl down the street. A while back, we decided it would be nice to host a sleep-over on a Saturday night. (What was I thinking?) Girl was invited, girl reported back that she could attend. On Friday afternoon, girl reports that in fact, she cannot attend because there's a family reunion on Saturday and her whole family would be gone. Is it just me, or do you also think Mum and Dad would have known about this at the beginning of the week when they gave permission?

Despite huge disappointment, the whole thing is re-scheduled for the following weekend. Parental consent follows. This time, on Saturday morning, it is revealed that both parents have to work that evening and girl will not be allowed over. Again, maybe it's just me, but knowing where these parents work, I know their work schedule is not a surprise, so it seems very strange that they'd give permission, knowing full well they won't be available.

Here's another example.

I know a woman who runs a regular, bi-weekly meeting at her house. She originally scheduled it to run from 3:30 to 5:30, but then handed out information saying 3:15 to 5:15. Then she gets flustered when people show up at 3:15, claiming they are early and she's not ready or she needs to run a "quick errand."

Of the last ten meetings, two have been cancelled without notice. Regardless of the schedules of those attending, she's also changed the time slot just hours before the regularly scheduled meeting, and she's twice assigned random tasks to attendees (bring snacks for a dozen people, give a presentation) with one day's notice. Just doing the math here, but it looks like only half of her meetings go as planned. That's not an impressive track record.

I imagine some of you have been inconvenienced by poor organizers. What do you think? I know plenty of people who could use help with clutter control - a professional organizer would be helpful - but they still manage to tell time and know how to use a calendar. I even know a hoarder who can do that. And I'm not talking about people who play passive-aggressive by being consistently late. I'm talking about chronic failure when it comes to relatively simple tasks that most second-graders could handle. So is there any reason we should expect it from adults?

I'd love to know how widespread this problem is. If you know somebody like this, please please please let me know what they do and how you cope.