ADMIN/MEMB: Talk to the right audience

[Cindy C.]

Hey,

Just a few points.  New ones, I promise. . . . 

> Will MEG respond to a letter of request with any more celerity than 
> it did to my last letter? Will it respond to everything *in* the 
> letter, or will it sidestep touchy questions like last time?

Erm, well . . . 

I did get a reply to my message 2432 asking what exactly happened with
the "hang on while MEG discusses the legal technalities" issue.

It was a genuine effort to clarify in some sense, although I still
can't piece this together and said so in my reply.

But there was something in the message I received today that is worth
noting here.  I was asked not to talk about this anymore "on any of
the lists."  I don't know if this was an official MEG directive or
not; the writer was a MEG/FAQ, so I assume she was writing on behalf
of her MEG half because she was talking about what MEG had decided and
why.

What to do, what to do?  Will I be kicked to the curb by MEG if I talk
about scrubbing or "legal technicalities" on FAQ if MEG doesn't want
me to?  Well, if MEG has the power to make decisions for us, then I'll
be shutting up right now, I guess.

Can you see why autonomy might matter to the non-MEGs here?

> I think that we should get some new people in here, some new people 
> who are not tainted with whatever is going on over there. 

Yeah, this has occurred to me too.  What would be so wrong with asking
everyone to choose -- MEG or FAQ?  A few MEGs told me over the summer
that they'd like to retire to the FAQ list, so this is something that
has occurred to a few MEGs.  We could perhaps grow this list to 50
people, all dedicated only to FAQ work and most brand new and ready to
kick it into gear without all of the power struggles we are having now.

>New people 
> who don't have obligations over there that are preventing them from 
> doing anything over here. 

Well.  Yeah.  I've wondered about this.

See, I wonder if our MEG members feel certain pressures that the
non-MEGs don't have.  If a MEG/FAQ had reservations about the
candidacy of a MEG, would they be able to say so without it getting
back to their MEG colleagues?  Is there some unintentional but
inappropriate loyalty?  Would Pickle Jimmy have received an invitation
if he had contacted Amanda?  

The FAQ members have no such worries.  Which is a good thing, IMHO.

Yeah.  Something needs to be done, IMHO.  'Cause this set-up isn't
working.  

Cindy