Meeting log for 2008-09-17

[Ian Jackson]

David Graham writes ("Re: Meeting log for 2008-09-17"):
> We've been down this road, we've had this argument. AOB is important for 
> the function of the board and banning it is an utterly useless and 
> counter-productive artificial barrier.

I don't understand why it is important.  Why can the matters raised in
AOB not be dealt with in an identical way informally or by email to
the lists ?

AOB mustn't be allowed to contain formal decisions because that avoids
membership scrutiny.

AOB shouldn't contain reports or invitations or the like because these
should be made in whole paragraphs by email so that they are presented
to everyone in a coherent and intelligible way (and so that they leave
a coherent and intelligible record).  IRC logs are not a coherent and
intelligible record and digesting them into meeting minutes is a
tedious task for which we (unsurprisingly) persistently lack effort.

AOB shouldn't contain ad-hoc discussions of matters which haven't yet
been raised before because these are very time-consuming: no-one
really knows what's going on and everyone has to sit around while
explanations are typed in and questions answered.

Of course there are sometimes things which need to be done urgently.
So I think it would be fine to rename AOB to `Emergency Business'.
Normally there would be no emergency business to transact.

Ian.
(who can no longer make the regular board meeting time)