Re: Mexico and NEC

[Karen Randall <krandall@world.std.com>]

At 02:17 PM 1/21/2000 -0500, you wrote: 
>
> Hi, everyone,
>  
> We had a great, very relaxing, mostly beach vacation in Mexico.  It felt good
> to spend so much time doing nothing!...


Sounds like a great trip!

>
> As far as NEC is concerned, I think it is fine to have Claus and Lee as
> speakers, and we could probably use a business meeting.  I don't know how
> many members will be there, but I think it is good to keep the membership
> posted as to what is going on.  On the other hand, in past years, the more
> informal times we have had together have also been fun.  I was hoping for a
> "show and tell" time when people could bring pictures and/or slides of their
> tanks.  Could we fit in a "show and tell time" some where in the weekend? 


I'm sure there will be time for that too.  While I think it's great to have an
short _informal_ business meeting, I'm a believer in having things like this be
FUN times to keep people interested and coming back.  People are much more
likely to volunteer to do some work if they perceive that it is a fun, vibrant
organization than if people sit around looking glum and complaining about how
over worked they are.  

Maybe those of us who are MC members who will be attending can come up with a
concise list of topics that we want to touch on with the general membership in
a positive way, then open discussion for a short period of time for questions,
comments, ideas, etc.  If we do it right, I think we should be able to get
business out of the way in 1/2 hour, leaving us a 1/2 hour for show and tell
during our "main" meeting time.  It is also pretty common for people to gather
in various places for informal get-togethers after the banquet.  I'm sure we
can find times for that kind of sharing one way or another.

Also keep in mind that depending on how many "plant people" want to stick
around and come up to the Boston on Monday, we might be able to arrange things
that day as well.  George has declined our invitiation, but I think I've talked
Erik and Kathy into coming up and having one of them as our BAS speaker that
night.  I think it would be fun to take them to at least your house, mine and
the school to see tanks, even if we can't get to other people's houses in the
time available.  If we can fit it in, I think we can probably also talk Scott
into a behind the scenes tour for people if it's not _too_ big a crowd.

Karen