Date: Mon, 20 Jun 2005 15:08:49 -0400
To: WSFA members <WSFAlist at WSFA.org>
From: Elspeth Kovar <ekovar at worldnet.att.net>
Subject: [WSFA] Re: Minutes

At 11:42 PM 6/19/2005, Keith F. Lynch wrote:
>The minutes of the latest meeting are available online at
>http://www.wsfa.org/minutes.htm
>
>Please inform me if there are any errors or omissions.  Thanks.
>
>Note that some of the items were done *twice*, due to late arrival of
>key people.  I combined them, so as to list each item only once.  So
>please read carefully if you arrived late (as most people there did).

"Keith pointed out that the majority of attendees had arrived after the
meeting had begun. He asked people to please try and arrive on time, so
that business doesn't have to be skipped or repeated, and meetings can be
kept short. He suggested that if this isn't possisble that we move the
meeting time to a later hour.."

"possisble" has a typo -- I can't believe that I caught one that you
missed!  I would also like for you to change "Capclave '06 Chairfan Elspeth
Kovar apologized for missing recent meetings due to poor health."  to
"Capclave '06 Chairfan Elspeth Kovar apologized for the fact that, due to
poor health, she's had to miss recent meetings and said that although they
were working on the situation it was likely to continue for a while."

You may want to review the minutes of both meetings to see how often you
reiterated that people were being late or absent.

You are absolutely correct that people who are supposed to be doing things
should attend whenever possible, and that people have been coming in
late.  However, there are often valid reasons for not attending; work,
travel, and medical issues come to mind first.  Your pointed "X person was
absent" and nothing more, when there's often been something on the WSFA
list about it or said at the meeting, is beginning to go from making a
point to making it clear that there is no point in anyone saying that they
won't be at or weren't able to attend a meeting.  I'm concerned that
bringing up tardiness so many times here and in the Journal, and with much
the same tone, will have the same numbing effect.  All of us need to try
harder to be on time but there's a difference between a reminder and a
bludgeon.

That said, I appreciate what you're trying to do.  And as one of the people
who usually arrives just around the time that the meeting is starting I
needed the initial reminders.  This past Friday there was the excuse of
unexpected traffic but in general it's just my difficulty in getting out of
the house and I'm sorry if it's been disruptive.  Hopefully things will get
better if we can get the right meds in place but in the meantime I'll
really work on it.

Elspeth