proposal for tech quarterly (monthly probably too much) meetings.
each area holds a public meeting every quarter or month.
feed back is given and stuff is worked on.
meetings are probably held privatly amonst the techs before the public meeting to catch up and decide on meeting plan.
meeting is for feedback updates and blah blah
agenda item are added to a spreadsheet with status etc and is viewable on the tech area pages to members.
this provides a direct contacting and formal feedback loop for each area.
I like that idea. Then people can come to the ones they are interested in and skip the others. It could also be a nice way for everyone interested in an area to meet face to face once in a while and swap ideas / discuss projects.
Also to add, I think every quarter would be about right. Every month sounds like too many meetings and I don’t think it should replace the monthly general meetings.
Each tech area holds a quarterly meeting? That sounds a bit onerous to me, especially for areas that run a lot of inductions. But let’s see what various techs and other members make of it, and go from there.
However: the occasional/periodic blog of what’s new and what’s happening, and call for feedback could be useful. And of course doing that in person is a meeting.
It doesn’t have to be seen as onerous.
But I get it might be seen as another chore if we’re not careful how it’s perceived.
Let’s see it as positive.
A way to show case the great stuff that’s been done in areas.
And a way to accerate productivity.
a way to clarify objectives
a stage for positive feedback for techs who are contributing a lot. And rewarding them with positive feedback and hobnobs (other biscuits are available)
a place for a bit of wingeing (kept to a minimum) that hopefully raises issues and diffuses conflict rather than perpetuating it.
I also think it will releave the bottleneck that is the monthly meeting. Putting too much responsibility on directors. And empowering more members to act in a positive way.
you don’t need to go to all meetings. You go to the ones you’re interested in. These meetings take care of more of the house keeping issues and release the general meeting for big scale space wide issues.
show case for projects completed
But it will need positive input and outlook to work.
It’s a great idea, however I floated this previously and the techs said much what @dermot has said about it being too much.
I think the benefit of it is that members get to have a chat about things and how they’re going in the area, what works and doesn’t and could possibly avoid the need for members meetings to discuss area specific changes.
However the idea of 6+ techs meetings and 3 members meetings every quarter sounds a lot.
You know what - as a member, I’d quite enjoy a quarterly email newsletter with updates from all the tech areas (and the opportunity to get in touch with the nominated representative from the tech area). Even just a couple of paragraphs. Just so I can see what’s going on, even if it’s not one of my direct interests.
I agree try, but I wonder if there is a way that this can be done which isn’t so intensive, because simultaneously monthly meetings would be preferable, but quarterly meetings are too often.
With a few more techs onboard now from different areas it seems that there is a role for a (word for the head person at the newspaper who brings everything together). Are you happy to coordinate this?
I’m in too 
