My sugestions re next weeks meeting:
Reasons to get together:
I suggest we DO try to meet, if only because it will force those of us
who are bogged down with end of term stuff to get on with the research.
If necessary, we could meet for only one day, but I see some value in two
days, if managed well. We could, for example, work in small groups on some
issue, meeting all together (or in larger subgroups) after 1-2 hours to
resolve the inter-institution matters relevant to that issue. Even if
that is too hard to be managed, for as much as two days, I do think we
make progress by being together: as long as the work gets done, it doesn't
matter where it's done (so if it takes sitting on a train for J and R talk
with each other about this, please sit on the train!!)
Reasons not to get together:
If the work that needs to be done next cannot be done by York and/or
Cambridge at UCL.
Possibly, if Alex is not going to be at the meeting. (When we set the
date, he didn;t know if he'd be here or in France, and I don;t think I;ve
heard.)
Penultimately, I do think it would help to focus and motivate those of us
who drown in admin etc if we had an agenda about 2-3 weeks ahead of these
big meetings. Perhaps the WP manager should try to set it, but of course
we should all contribute. As my (lamentably non-central) contribution,
could we discuss Wiktor Jassem's requiest that I sent to you all while you
were at Euriopseech?
finally, I think we should expect teething problems in managing these
meetings, but I'm confident that we will learn in time. We should,
however, seriously consider the value of phone calls. I think I tend to
find it more valuable to have a 30 (or even 60) minute phone discussion
than to have to set aside a comparable amount of time to read a series of
emails that may ramble no more than the spoken words would ramble, but are
somehow harder to follow. Perhpas that should be an agenda item as well,
unless I am alone in my preference for dialog in place of successive
monologs?
now: the student, and then mark's voice, and then the monologs, hopefully
with some answers!
love to you all
Sarah
______________________________________________________________________
Dr. Sarah Hawkins Email: sh110@cam.ac.uk
Dept. of Linguistics Phone: +44 1223 33 50 52
University of Cambridge Fax: +44 1223 33 50 53
Sidgwick Avenue or +44 1223 33 50 62
Cambridge CB3 9DA
United Kingdom