2008/12/14 Thomas Dalton thomas.dalton@gmail.com:
2008/12/14 David Gerard dgerard@gmail.com:
2008/12/14 AndrewRT raturvey@yahoo.co.uk:
There are advantages in having in person meetings as well, though - it gives us an opportunity to discuss things more informally and get to know each other more that you can with an online meeting.
For an AGM, a meeting in person may be appropriate, for all the social reasons you describe.
For getting stuff done, IRC meetings are very nicely practical things IME. The chair needs to ride herd on them firmly and everyone needs to keep to the agenda, but they work quite well enough. And of course you have the log to hand.
The key thing about an AGM that makes IRC impractical is the size. A board meeting with less than 10 people works great online (as long as you have a decent chair). An AGM with 20+ people is another matter and no chair could handle that well. You would end up with people talking over each other too much and everything would get confused. You can hold a Q&A with those kind of numbers online (people PM the chair with their questions), but not an actual discussion.
Umm, +m? And sure you can hold actual discussions, it's just all moderated through the Chair. I generally find, if anything, that the meetings are more effective and efficient.
J.