<!doctype html public "-//w3c//dtd html 4.0 transitional//en"> <html> Bill, and All, The point I was trying to make in my post was to have CAUT members around the country have a chance to get together in regional/local settings.  Since we're in the process of revising our guidelines, the success of the project depends to a large degree on how useable that document will be on a grass roots level.  That's why we talked about the revisions at our last regional seminar.  If we can involve more technicians at the local level, the revision project will benefit and the results will be more meaningful. In regard to point 1 below, I agree that it's hard to run a committee when the only time the committee has a chance to meet is once a year at the convention.  We've been stuck with this "system" for as long as PTG has been around.  I had hopes that with email the barriers to progress might disappear.  But email doesn't solve every communication problem.  We just have to keep working at keeping in touch with each other any way we can.  The board has the same problem.  We meet twice a year at some expense to PTG.  We tried a third meeting, which I still believe is still a good idea, but our financial resources are limited.  We're a small organization and so we just can't do everything we'd like. Finally, for CAUT to have a presence in local and regional meetings, it takes local technicians to take the effort to schedule time, develop classes, and generally open up university facilities to PTG as much as possible. I agree with what you say in another post:  There are some real investments required to make this type of thing come off.  I, too, applaud the all effort of many of our CAUT technicians over the past few years, and I hope that my posts haven't suggested otherwise.  I believe there are more university technicians around and that they are ready to work together.  I've always felt the CAUT group should be a major player in PTG education and support.  CAUT has some of the best technicians in the country. Richard West Bdshull@aol.com wrote: <blockquote TYPE=CITE>Richard, I agree.  The way I see it you are making two extremely valid points: 1.  The CAUT committee (or as many of the committee as possible) needs to meet more often face to face through the year to do business. 2.  CAUT should sponsor more events at regional and state seminars. As for point one, that business is dramatically increasing, and we are struggling to maintain the old patterns of doing business, which include having no committee meeting at the annual convention (we have met recently, however) and doing the rest of the work by email (phone only in rare cases).   The kinds of things I would like to see happen in CAUT would require meeting at least once, possibly twice, during the year.  I can't see it working well otherwise. As for the second point, I credit some of the oldtimers in CAUT for the work they have done over the years, mostly east of the Mississippi, to have CAUT events at regionals.  We have done none of that here in the west, but I have secured two class periods at the California State Seminar in February for CAUT, and am looking forward to getting a head start on the new Guidelines as well as getting west coast CAUTs together for the first time (plenty of CA state CAUT issues to address). Is this what you are saying? Bill In a message dated 9/25/02 7:22:00 AM Pacific Daylight Time, rwest1@unl.edu writes:     <blockquote TYPE=CITE style="BORDER-LEFT: #0000ff 2px solid; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px; PADDING-LEFT: 5px">One other suggestion for the revision process:  schedule time during the various regional meetings coming up around the country.  There's nothing like face to face discussion and debate .  We had a lively discussion at our CAUT session last year at the CW regional seminar.  For some reason CAUT has not been very good at making sure that the planning for seminars includes a CAUT meeting of some kind.  CW has had an afternoon meeting at the past 3 regionals, and I think they have been very valuable. Richard West</blockquote>  </blockquote> </html>