[MRIC] Meeting Minutes for April 25, 2009

[Pat Scolla]

Brett,

You missed the point entirely.  

The minutes of the meeting should be sent out with minimal introduction and
zero personal opinion preceding them.

Your opinions are fine and had you sent them in an e-mail separate from the
meeting minutes, then I would not have objected.  

Yes there is a line of ----------------------- between your opinions and the
record of the meeting, but that does not guarantee that your opinions are
kept separate from the minutes.    

Personal opinions should go in a separate e-mail.  Period.

A chairman's function is to remain neutral, see that the group functions in
accordance to its charter, keep order, and not to promote any one platform
regardless of the source.

I am not saying that the chairman cannot have an opinion, nor that it cannot
be expressed.  I am simply saying that it must be expressed separately from
official MRIC business and communications.

I am not attacking you personally nor am I questioning your experience here.
I am simply indicating displeasure with the mechanics of how you choose to
express your personal opinions about the April 25, 2009 MRIC meeting.


Pat Scolla, wb0egr


-----Original Message-----
From: mric-bounces at mailman.qth.net [mailto:mric-bounces at mailman.qth.net] On
Behalf Of Brett Hammond
Sent: Friday, May 08, 2009 10:49 AM
To: MRIC
Subject: Re: [MRIC] Meeting Minutes for April 25, 2009

Pat,

My comments were in the email that preceded the minutes, not in the minutes 
themselves.

We tried conducting business outside the meetings the first year, and debate

spiraled out of control. The idea behind getting together in person is to 
try to tear down the walls between jurisdictions, get to know each other 
personally, and debate the issues openly to eliminate politics and 
demonizing, which I believe has worked very well with a few exceptions. I 
believe if we change the tone of the meeting back to trying to build 
consensus, rather than trying to push through one's own position, more 
people would attend. Perhaps when there is less contention we can try it 
again. Also, we normally have a much higher attendance.

Once again I must request you stop the personal attacks on me such as 
questioning my experience, motives and accusing me of using MRIC to advance 
my own personal agenda. As I said many, many times publicly, the equipment 
list we have been working on for the past year is of no use to me 
personally. I already have a well equipped EOC. I am only trying to move 
forward with it because so many other jurisdictions have requested we put 
our collective minds together and give them such a list. Some of whom, 
unfortunately, were unable to attend our last meeting in which you lead the 
effort to kill it. In fact, I can't think of a single thing that we have 
done in the past 3 years that has benefited me or Talbot County, except that

we finally have an agreement on interoperable communications to other 
jurisdictions. On the other hand, the time I spend on MRIC for the benefit 
of others is considerable, and at times, very frustrating.

Brett