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