Unlike the 1996 WDC Society Meeting; which was both poorly attended and basically prefunctory in nature; this year's meeting was both well attended and lively. Bjorn von Knorring chaired the meeting and 32+ people participated.
A motion was made to ratify & confirm the 1996 Columbus WDC choice of Chapel Hill to host the 1998 WDC event. I pointed out that the 1996 selection of Chapel Hill required no confirmation since the decision made in Columbus was clearly based on the idea that that decision would stand alone, requiring no further confirmation as part of the decision to select a site two years in advance. After some discussion, it was agreed that unless some extraordinary problem arose with a future selected site (such as it being clearly unable or unwilling to host the event), a site picked two years in advance would automatically host its event without further discussion.
After a presentation by the Belgian representative, Delattre; Namur, Belgium was selected to host the 1999 WDC event in March of that year.
Things were going pretty smoothly until I presented "A Simple Plan." A copy of my proposal and the arguments for it are attached. The discussion went back and forth with the room being about equally divided between those supporting the plan and those against it. The crucial vote tied, twice, and a substitute motion to create a powerless committee was adopted. I voted against that plan. I also declined to serve on the committee that was finally established. The main results of this were: (1) the Bowen draft charter is officially dead; (2) a committee has been established with no defined authority; and (3) a variety of prominent hobby members have been selected to make something out of that committee.
What does it mean? First, the obvious lesson, is that everyone wants to play, but only a few want to work, and those who don't want to work don't want anyone else making the decisions! Second, it leaves open the question of "Is the wrong kind of committee better or worse than no committee at all?" Only time will tell..
Back to WDC VII
The Diplomacy Institute
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Larry Peery (peery@ix.netcom.com) |
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