[wplug-plan] Re: [wplug] Bylaws

[David Tessitor]

edstef wrote:

> At I attend a lot of meetings where I work because I work for a stodgy old
> steel company. I attended even more when I worked for a stodgy old
> engineering company and before that for a stodgy old power plan supplier.
> In all the thousands of business meetings I have attended no one ever
> suggested RR.
>
> I suspect that's because in business we can't afford to waste time on all
> those formalities, we just get down to it wether we like each other or
> not.  Of course we usually make sure the tables are large enough to prevent
> participants from reaching across and strangling each other and are stout
> enough to take a little pounding...

I take it that those were management meetings which come under a corporate
(quasi-military) command structure where the person highest up on the command
tree has the say -- the boss is the boss, even if he or she is willing and
desires to listen to others.  It is not a democratic process and it makes no
pretensions of being one.

I'm confident you are not suggesting that WPLUG adopt a corporate structure,
yet unless we have anarchy we must have some orderliness if we are to
accomplish our goal of having fun group activities.  Even in the companies
where you worked, I dare say that in board meetings and stockholder meetings
each of the corporations relied upon rules of order, either by explicit
designation or as a simple matter of practice (motions, seconds, etc.).

Now, we can reinvent the wheel and spend immense time and energy working out a
new process -- or -- we can use something that has proven successful with
groups such as this and not make it more complicated than it needs be.  The
reason groups designate a rules of order, whether Roberts or some other, is so
they can get on with the reason the group came together and yet have some
agreed in advance means for resolving unforeseen problems.  The alternative is
to take the mystery tour and just wait to see what difficulties pop up and what
head aches and ill feelings they will generate to tear the group apart.
Unfortunately, so far that seems to be the most voiced desire.

I do not mean this as criticism of anybody.  I do not mean this as debate.  It
is nothing more than observation and an attempt to pass on the benefit of my
experience.