On 10/23/01 at 9:49 AM -0400, RJ Atkinson wrote: >Many have been the meetings where folks who want to actively >participate in that meeting are unable to get in or unable to sit >down.
I'm sorry, but I really think this is a problem with the person/persons chairing the meeting. If you are the chair of a working group whose meeting room is too small, you've got some choices: 1. If this happened in the past, you need to ask for a bigger meeting room. However, I understand this is not always possible. 2. Before your WG meeting, ask on the mailing list (which all active participants should be reading anyway) for all people who are planning on attending the meeting and actively participating to send you a piece of e-mail. Count. When you get to the room at the meeting, count off that many seats in the front rows. Add 10 for useful IESG/IAB members. Add a bunch if you know your WG is going to have cross-area interest where some people will be attending who don't subscribe to the WG list. Cordon off the section with some paper signs which read "ACTIVE PARTICIPANTS ONLY". No, it won't stop everyone, but it will help things. 3. If people are blocking the door during the meeting, be a traffic cop. Go to the door and say, "If you are staying, move in to the opposite side of the room away from the door. Otherwise, leave." The area behind where the chair usually sits is a fine place to stick people. If it gets totally out of hand, you may have to conduct the meeting by standing in the door; people who are just loafing hate sitting right next to the chairperson anyway. 4. (Up on soapbox again) Do not allow lecture-style presentations in your WG meeting, or at the very least do not let anyone present introductory material which could be posted to the list. These kinds of things encourage people to come to the meeting to try to learn. That's not why we're having these meetings. There should be NO NEW INFORMATION presented at WG meetings. If at least an introduction to the topic has not been written up and posted to the list, discussion of that topic should not be allowed in the WG meeting. The content of a WG meeting should be without surprise. Personally, I think this is a fine idea for BOFs too: You're posting an agenda before the meeting anyway; make sure any needed information is written up and posted before the meeting and make sure that the agenda has URLs for that information. Now, I understand that BOFs are in a somewhat different position and sometimes there's going to have to be presentation of new material in BOF meetings, but that needn't always be the case. WGs, of course, have no excuse. pr -- Pete Resnick <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> QUALCOMM Incorporated - Direct phone: (858)651-4478, Fax: (858)651-1102
