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<div style="direction:ltr; font-family:Tahoma; color:#000000; font-size:10pt">Dear Grenolas,
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<div>We should rethink the agenda for this meeting. I have strong reservations about using written questions, the limited time for the questions (only 20 minutes), and the complete lack of discussion. I'm making the suggestions below because i want the meeting
to be as productive as possible.</div>
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<div>1. There will not be many people there. You only really need written questions for large gatherings where far fewer questions can be taken than desired, and a fair mechanism is needed to pick which ones will be heard. They should be drawn by lot, but
unfortunately the technique is often also abused and used for censorship to make sure that only certain kinds of questions will be heard. </div>
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<div>2. We need discussion, which means people should be able to make both questions and comments. Questions to the speaker directly concerning what the speaker has said in their address should predominate, but I can also see the need to allow the audience
to make comments on the responses of the speaker to other questioners, as well as comments on what others in the audience have said.</div>
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<div>3. I can't see us getting very far in only 20 minutes (8:10-8:30) of questions. Also, it's not clear what happens in the next 10 minutes, as well as the 8:40 "open discussion and opportunities to mingle".</div>
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<div>4. The best way to ensure a productive meeting is to have a good chair who is fair, firm, and has the cooperation of the audience/participants. The chair should insist that people make their questions short, cogent, and address the topic and what the speaker
has said. Above all, they should be questions, not grandstanding statements. A good chair will enforce such rules, firmly but politely, and also not be afraid to force a long rambling question to conclusion. </div>
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<div>I don't think the proposed agenda will work very well and will fall short of our objectives. How about this instead:</div>
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<div>7:15 meeting starts, 5 minutes of introductions to procedures and to the speaker.</div>
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<div>7:20 - 7:50 Costello</div>
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<div>7:50 - 8:30 Questions to speaker -- and maybe a few comments. Chair first carefully sets out the simple ground rules and enforces them.</div>
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<div>8:30 - 8:50 What action should we take? If the audience wants more time, part of this could be an extension of the question/comment portion above.</div>
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<div>8:50 - 9:00 Additional business</div>
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<div>9:00 Meeting is over but we should expect people to mingle for a bit, but try have the room cleared by 9:30</div>
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<div>__________________________________________</div>
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<div>I remember when Bill Gates came to speak at UW, the administration tried its best to stage it as a love-in by insisting that questions had to be submitted a day in advance and a couple of people would decide which got to be asked. The day of the meeting
I got an email from a civil liberties organization about how Microsoft had signed an agreement with the Chinese government to set up internet access in China that would include censorship and a special internet secret police. I showed it to a visiting Chinese
scholar in the next office and he told me that he had sent an email to a colleague in which he mentioned that he had gone down to sight-see at Niagara Falls and coincidentally the President of China happened to be there as well. The inclusion of the president's
name in the email redirected his innocent email to the special internet secret police and it took a month to reach his colleague. But there was no way I could get a ticket to the Gates meeting so late, so I photocopied the email about Gate's personal collusion
with Chinese censorship and oppression, and walked up and down the line-up handing them to the people going in. But there was no way for that very important issue to be addressed by directing a question to Gates and forcing him to defend his disgusting actions
in public.</div>
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<div>- Greg</div>
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<div id="divRpF487787" style="direction:ltr"><font face="Tahoma" size="2" color="#000000"><b>From:</b> all-bounces@gren.ca [all-bounces@gren.ca] on behalf of Susan Koswan [dandelion@gto.net]<br>
<b>Sent:</b> Monday, January 10, 2011 10:47 PM<br>
<b>To:</b> 'gren'<br>
<b>Subject:</b> [All] CHANGE OF VENUE GREN MEETING - Regional Waterloo Light Rail Transit - January 18<br>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"">Hi GRENers,</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif""> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><u><span style="font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"">CHANGE OF VENUE FOR JAN. 18 GREN MEETING RE LRT</span></u></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif""> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"">When we contacted TriTAG (pro-LRT) to tell them about our meeting, they had already scheduled theirs for the same night. Since they could not change their location, we agreed to combine our
meetings and join them at Whole-Lot-A-Gelata on King St located at 120 King St. S. Waterloo 519-884-5760
<a href="http://www.wholelotagelata.com/index.html" target="_blank"><span style="color:windowtext">http://www.wholelotagelata.com/index.html</span></a>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif""> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"">Agenda as follows:</span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"">7:30-7:40 introduction: information about initiatives, how to sign up, speaker</span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"">7:40-8:10 presentation by Mr. J. Casello</span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"">8:10-8:30 written questions delivered by moderator (this will cut unnecessary time out of the structured QA session; I can print forms)</span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"">8:30-8:40 closing: recommended actions, information about recurring meetings for GREN and TriTAG</span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"">8:40-9:00 open discussion and opportunities to mingle</span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif""> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"">Susan K</span></p>
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