Re: General session at the AERC convention - YES

[jlong@mti.net (Joe Long)]

On Wed, 27 Jan 1999 11:58:38 -0800, "Michael K. Maul"
<mmaul@galaxy.nsc.com> wrote:

>Hope this clears things up. It does not fix the conflict with 
>speakers but unfortunately there are a fixed number of hours in the day.
...
>Saturday AM

>9:00 - 9:15 - Swearing in of new Directors At Large
>9:15 - 9:45 - Election of 1999 Officers
>9:45 - 11:45 - General Session - Open to Membership

It clears things up but leaves it clear that there is a serious
problem.  The General Membership meeting is the most important
session at the Convention, and IMO MUST NOT be in conflict with a
speaker.  The limited number of hours is no excuse.

It is bad enough that this session is normally run first thing
Saturday morning, a time when attendance is at its lowest point for
the day.

I most strongly urge the BoD to direct the office to fix the schedule,
so that the General Membership Meeting mandated by our Bylaws (and by
common sense) is not held concurrently with any speaker.  This is the
one time all year that the members have a chance to express their
views to the full Board, to hear Board responses, and for the Board to
get a real feel for how the members think on the important issues
before us.  When I was on the Board this was always a most valuable
time for me, and many of the actions and votes I took were influenced
by these meetings.

Yes, they are poorly attended.  Partly, IMO, due to the time they've
been scheduled.  But those people who care most about the sport and
the AERC are the ones who go there, and speak their piece.  They
should not be shortchanged by having to choose between doing so and
hearing a speaker they've paid a lot of money to hear, and that kind
of scheduling is sure to make attendance even worse than it has been
in the past.

One solution (there are others) is to double up two of the speakers,
and run them concurrently.  Not everyone wants to hear every speaker,
they could make their own choice.  And the General Meeting would not
be compromised.

Frankly, I think that the choice (for the first time in the AERC
history) to not give the General Membership Meeting its own time slot
shows a disregard by the office staff for real membership input.

-- 

Joe Long
jlong@mti.net
http://www.mti.net     Business
http://www.rnbw.com    Personal