A small, workable, suggestion.

DeVore

There is no big secret about what we are doing. It’s just that a lot of the work we are doing is related to lobbying politicians and dealing with people like the Department of Public Enterprise. Work like this is done more effectively out of the public arena. It is also work that takes a long time to produce anything tangible and when we have something concrete to report, we will do so.

This is why not everything can be reported to the public.

Ireland works off nods and winks. For example, Spin Solutions american lawyer is a friend of a bloke in the Taoiseachs Office so, I could get in there and have a word if we so desired. [1]

However, if IOFFL came here and tell you this... or something like: Yes Esat are going to support us officially ... or we're meeting Etain Doyle for a private briefing... then parties wishing to negate our effects would be better equiped to sideline our lobbyists.

(These are examples, I have nothing whatsiever to do with IOFFL officially).

Information is a valuable commodity. You dont just tell your enemy everything you are doing... It'd be like the soldiers asking Napoleon to display his plans where Nelson could see them... just so they can see whats going to happen.



So, here's a suggestion: The committee commits to giving the spear-carriers (us) a fortnightly progress update... even if that update says: Nothing we can reveal....

If its titled: Official Commitee Report DD-MM-YYYY
it will be easy to find and will convince the masses you havent forgotten about us. I think you'll find that you can harness a powerful resource here and you have more to tell (and ask!) then you think.

DeV.

[1] actually our lawyer was SO shocked and disgusted at the state of the teleco's here compared to his 1mb cable connection for $40 a month (including 60 channels of TV!!) that he got tickets to a private address by Bertie in Boston and gave out stink to him personally afterwards! Water off a ducks back but it was funny about it...

angryuser

So, here's a suggestion: The committee commits to giving the spear-carriers (us) a fortnightly progress update... even if that update says: Nothing we can reveal....

If its titled: Official Commitee Report DD-MM-YYYY
it will be easy to find and will convince the masses you havent forgotten about us. I think you'll find that you can harness a powerful resource here and you have more to tell (and ask!) then you think.

---

As an addition to my post elsewhere, the above comment by Devore is very good and practicable, and confirms my own comments about 'membership needs' ?? Now, is this idea going to be taken up, or not ?? The only addition I would make to his suggestion is, dont be secretive. If there is something being done, but not yet succeeded or successful, or was unsuccessful, list it also, dont hide it !!

MarcusGarvey

I like Devs idea.

DeVore

I've split this off because it was lost at the end of a long post.

I think its a workable idea. Maybe every month instead of 2 weeks. Adam, this imho would fall into the PRO's area.... *grin*

I think its perfectly reasonable to report:

Nothing we can report at this time... or Nothing to report at all.

Its also reasonable to report:
Operation CodeRed is proceeding nicely, we'll explain when its safe to do so...

Anyway, I think it would help settle everyone down and show a committment to feeding back even where there is nothing to say.

DeV.

m1ke

yes this is a v good idea, I suggested a system of "progress reports" in a thread awhile ago.... members need something like this.

DeVore

*punt*

dahamsta

Sorry Tom, I've actually responded to this in another thread.

We've wanted to do this for a while, but it ties in with a lot of other things, such as a more detailed/organised membership database. Pretty soon, members will be able to login to an interface to select when and how they get updates. To be safe, I'm saying the end of the month for this.

Also, Martin has developed a Where We Are Now report and it will be released here and to the ANNOUNCE list very shortly. We just need to sort out a couple of small bits and bobs beforehand.

adam

DeVore

cool, thats perfect.

I'm not on the list (I get about 150 mail a day as it is!) but I read here quite a bit, will you be sure to put a "sticky" up when you guys publish it?... thanks!

DeV.