I've been trying to encourage a certain structure to our weekly IRC
meetings, by means of some brief statements in the meeting and by
talking to people afterwards about what I was trying to achieve. But
this approach has led to frustration and miscommunication. I think
it's about time I wrote my thoughts out in full for everyone.
What I want is pretty modest and achievable.
I want to have a brief wrap-up period, lasting 5-10 minutes at the end
of the meeting, where the regular flow of discussion is suspended, and
we instead focus on helping the RFC author and other implementors, by
producing action items, meeting summary notes, and if possible, RFC
resolution (acceptance or rejection).
At the end of this wrap-up period, the #endmeeting command will be
given. Then you are free to continue your discussions unlogged,
without expecting all relevant parties to remain in attendance.
We are all engineers, and we love thinking about hard problems and
clever solutions. That is why it is important that discussion be
suspended. Otherwise, it is too difficult to focus on the meeting goals.
-- Tim Starling