Dear Bruce, all: --- Bruce Tonkin <Bruce.Tonkin@melbourneit.com.au> wrote:
Hello All,
.....
So - I believe that as a principle when we are having a physical meeting we should at least allow the opportunity for members of the public to speak on an issue, but these comments should be assessed on an equal basis with formal written material.
I am confortable with this approach. So that you get the full picture of my concern, the question was also that: i) if we are to make progress on the issues to be discussed (which means we will be making decisions), I was concerned that we may get into negotiations of some kind with live participants, and the live inputs may lock some options/decisions at the expenses of some other. Which, from what you're saying, shouldn't be the case. ii) Second, and maybe most importantly, is it okay to decide upon a public consultation meeting between two conference calls, or is this a policy, or if you will, a "rules and regulations" kind of requirement we need to advise and advertise well in advance for all to be aware of? I rest my case, Mawaki We will also have any papers
that have been submitted formally, and have the ability to ask the authors of those papers to give a short summary of their paper and allow the opportunity for questions. This was discussed in January when we discussed the call for papers. This is no requirement for the authors to be present in-person.
Regards, Bruce Tonkin