Re: [802SEC] Plenary organization
Adrian -
Dumb idea or not, we used to run closing EC meetings from 7-12PM for many years; having
them on the Friday PM is a relatively recent thing.
I'm absolutely sure that there were some poor quality decisions taken back then, but,
having participated in both the evening and the afternoon meetings, no higher a proportion
IMHO than we manage to make now.
Regards,
Tony
-----Original Message-----
From: Stephens, Adrian P [mailto:Adrian.P.Stephens@intel.com]
Sent: 16 October 2008 10:40
To: Tony Jeffree; STDS-802-SEC@LISTSERV.IEEE.ORG
Subject: RE: [802SEC] Plenary organization
Hello all,
I also agree that there is too little time during the plenary week for working
group activites.
I wouldn't object to doing more business on Sunday. We already have
various preparation meetings, and this could be extended.
There's a lot of repetition in the opening plenaries. The same material
is presented by different people in the 802 plenary and WG plenary
meetings. I think this can be reduced by marking certain material
within the EC as "for presentation in your WG opening plenary" and
skipping it in the 802 plenary.
Many people head home on friday. I think it is an ineluctable law of nature
that says this must happen. I don't see that planning a full day
of WG meetings on friday is workable.
I personally am a morning person. Planning a meeting to run to midnight
at the end of a hard week's meetings, at the end of a long day (which
probably starts with 2 hours of email, then a pre-meeting, then a meeting ...) is, IMHO,
dumb. I.e. we won't get quality decisions at the end of an 18-hour
working day. It is close to the "hero" model of process maturity
(which is close to the worst possible model).
My recommendations are as follows:
1. Move 802 plenary to sunday pm and shorten it.
2. Reserve only one evening for tutorial slots and, if necessary, run
parallel threads.
3. Keep friday as is.
My deuce of denarii...
Best Regards,
Adrian Stephens
802.11 minion (i.e. chair of vice)
>-----Original Message-----
>From: owner-stds-802-sec@ieee.org
>[mailto:owner-stds-802-sec@ieee.org] On Behalf Of Tony Jeffree
>Sent: 16 October 2008 09:48
>To: STDS-802-SEC@LISTSERV.IEEE.ORG
>Subject: [802SEC] Plenary organization
>
>Colleauges -
>
>Given the not inconsiderable workload that some working groups
>are attempting to tackle, I
>feel it is worth re-visiting once again the question of how we
>organize our Plenaries to
>maximize the time available for useful technical work (which I
>believe, when all is said
>and done, is why we have these meetings in the first place).
>At present, with the existing
>meeting format, I get 2 ½ clear days of Task Group meetings;
>that is rather less than we
>need for effective progress. I am reluctant to move the
>closing 802.1 plenary to Friday
>morning (as some WGs have done) with the present format,
>because firstly I doubt we would
>get the right level of attendance to conduct effective
>business, given that there would
>not be technical meetings that day, and secondly it would
>leave me with no time for
>preparation for the closing EC meeting.
>
>So how can this be fixed?
>
>Firstly, Monday mornings at Plenary sessions are largely a
>no-op in my view. I don't think
>that the format of the Monday morning plenary meeting is
>useful to the majority of
>attendees, and if it didn't happen, I don't believe there are
>many attendees that would
>miss it at all. If it wasn't there, we could start our WG
>opening plenaries before lunch
>and in my case, we could be off and running with Task Group
>meetings by early-mid
>afternoon.
>
>Secondly, we could make the radical move to take the opening
>EC meeting out of the
>"working week" altogether, by holding it on the Sunday
>evening. We already have a Sunday
>PM rules meeting; maybe putting the two together on the Sunday
>evening would help us to
>crispen up both activities. Again, this would help free up
>Monday time for WG activity.
>
>Thirdly, although for some EC members, holding the closing EC
>on Friday afternoon helps
>with their travel plans, for others of us it creates a double whammy:
>
>1) We have to stay over until Saturday anyway, because
>even a 6PM close is too late
>to get away on the Friday evening; and
>2) The fact that the closing meeting is in the afternoon
>makes it difficult to make
>sensible use of Friday morning (see opening para - we need
>some time to prepare stuff for
>the EC meeting following our closing WG Plenaries, and holding
>a short Plenary on Friday
>morning is a guarantee of low attendance).
>
>So I would advocate moving the EC meeting to the 7pm-midnight
>slot on Friday evening,
>freeing up most of Friday for WG business - finishing the WG
>closing plenary at (say) 3pm
>would still allow us to get straight for the EC meeting, but
>would also give us an extra
>morning or part-morning for task group work.
>
>Any thoughts?
>
>Regards,
>Tony
>
>
>
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>
----------
This email is sent from the 802 Executive Committee email reflector. This list is maintained by Listserv.