ANST - Meetings and Volume at Steppes 12th Night

[Tim McDaniel]

On Tue, 13 Jan 1998, Catherine / Nan Bradford-Reid
<ad-4na at mail.utexas.edu> wrote:
> It is not fair to ask
> people who can't hear a danged thing to sit there quietly
> twiddling their thumbs for 2-3 hours, bored to tears.

I was all the way at the front, so I can't speak to what the
back was actually like.  It *sounded* at times rather like
most of the people in the hall, except the very front, were
having conversations in normal voices.  Hypothesis: if all
the people who can't hear start to talk normally, then the
people who can just barely hear can't hear any more.  If
*they* start to talk, the people in front of *them* can't
hear ... I suspect that talking reduces the number of people
who can hear in a big way.

I don't have a good solution that satisfies everyone.  I do
think that asking people to sit largely quietly for several
hours *is* what we have to ask for, or ask them to consider
going elsewhere to minimize the impact of their talking --
go out, go into a side room, go up to the balcony, whatever.
It's not the occasional low whispers or snarky remarks I
find bad, even those too add up; it's the prolonged
conversations.

> Also, there were a number of small children who cannot be
> merely stuffed in a closet for this duration of court.

I have to get a "smart remark" out of my system.  I belive
"crying children are like good intentions -- they should be
carried out as soon as possible".  (Alternative: "crying
children are like good intentions -- the road to Hell is
paved with them".)

Seriously, crying wasn't a problem, as far as I heard.  And
probably my not being a parent affects my opinions strongly.
However, I think it's the parents' responsibility to make
sure their children do not affect others in a major way.

> In a hall that size, why not have a couple of relay
> heralds ...

I think that won't work, for the reasons discussed
elsewhere.

> most will want to be quiet if there is actually something
> to hear!  Miking is not the answer.  Yuck.

That *is* the problem.  I wish I had better solutions.

An idea that just hit me (*wham* OW!): perhaps we just have
to say "only major business in major events' courts".  No
awards below GoAs, say, or some other more-or-less arbitrary
cutoff?  The courts get substantially shorter, and each
piece of business is of interest to more people.

-- 
Daniel de Lincoln
Tim McDaniel; Reply-To: tmcd at crl.com; if that fail, tmcd at austin.ibm.com
is work address.  tmcd at tmcd.austin.tx.us is wrong tool.  Never use this.
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