Re: Final Call: accept incorporated comments

[Robert Elz <kre@munnari.OZ.AU>]

    Date:        Thu, 14 Mar 2002 08:38:54 -0800
    From:        "todd glassey" <todd.glassey@worldnet.att.net>
    Message-ID:  <039001c1cb76$bcd41680$020aff0c@tsg1>

  | They have to. The problem is that the term Archived is undefined. The
  | constraints regarding who has access and how the information is to be kept.

That's part of the problem, but not all of it.   I want the ability to
make comments that aren't to be archived (anywhere, for anyone).

Now it maybe (in fact, probably should be) that off the record comments
that X is a manipulative bastard, and should never be appointed to
anything (which I don't want archived, as X may be a potential employer
one day...) made by me should carry almost no weight at all.   On the
other hand, if the nomcom gets lots of similar comments, that just might
give them a clue that it really would be better not to appoint X.

  | This is not the FISA tribunal. Its the NomCom.

Sorry, the FISA acronym is unknown to me, so I have no idea the
significance of that comment.


  | No - I disagree. All records of any types of communcations with anyone in an
  | official role MUST become part of the record.

Hmm... so you're saying that everyone in any official role must carry around
a tape recorder (with or without "tape") and record all conversations made
to them, and (at least if anything related to the role is conveyed) make that
recording a part of the official record?

A recording is the only way to get an accurate impression (well, as accurate
as it can be) of what happened with spoken communications - transcripts
necessarily omit much of the intonation, etc.

It is a little hard for me to believe that anyone would really conceive
of that as necessary for any kind of organisation - let alone the comparatively
benign one that we're concerned with here.

  | Not as far as accountability goes.

Accountability for what?   The nomcom is asked to use their judgement to
appoint the best people it can find.   All kinds of things (including
past observations from before the nomcom member even considered being
part of the nomcom) influence that decision.   What possible good can it be
to record a subset of those influences?  Because even if we were to insist on
keeping tape recordings (with the recorder running all the time - you never
can tell when a chance remark may be made - even when you're sleeping, your
unconscious mind may pick up on some comment that happens to be made within
your hearing) we'd still never be able to do better than a subset.

kre