response 1 of 143:

Aug 20 01:36 UTC 1998

I'm going to paste in the text from an item that was entered to propose a new
conference, for a start - also the responses so far to it:

> Item #20 entered by John S. Wolter(jsw) on Wed Aug 19 14:18:32 1998
>  Request for "space" conference from Ann Arbor Space Society
> 
>  After speaking with Jan Wolter and EMailing Scott Helmke I want to 
>  request a 'space' topic under public issues section.  Organization has 
>  existed in Ann Arbor for over 20 years in one form or another.  We 
>  communicate with people all over the world, a conference form should 
>  make issue discussion easier.
>  
>  I don't know the complete process, so if you could let me know what is 
>  needed I will galdly supply what I can.  I understand a 'witness' is 
>  needed to manage the discussion form, I will be willing to be listed to 
>  fulfill that role.
>  
>  Thank you for your assistance.
>  
>  John Wolter, President
>  Ann Arbor Space Society
> 
> 2 responses total.
> 
> #1 David Cahill(dpc) on Wed Aug 19 16:25:54 1998:
>  Great, jsw!
> #2 Dave Lovelace(davel) on Wed Aug 19 21:31:30 1998:
>  The procedure is:
>  1. Enter a request in the "conference requests" item in coop.  Hmm.
>     Looks like none got created when coop was restarted.  So start one.
>     (It helps to have them collected.  If discussion gets complicated,
>     a separate item such as this  one here can help.)
>  2. If there are any suggestions or criticism, refine your intentions
>     accordingly.  (That includes saying "That's not what I had in mind"
>     & sticking with your original proposal, of course, if you wish.)
>     Out of this discussion may come fairwitnesses & all kinds of helpful
>     ideas.  Occasionally (very rarely) it becomes obvious to the proposer
>     that such a conference is unneeded or won't work, & things don't
>     go further.
>  3. Assuming you're still interested in going ahead with it, after (say)
>     a week or so, say so publically.  Email cfadm to get things moving.
>     Info you may want to have ready:
>     - conference name, & brief description for the "help conference" text
>     - the login banner that is seen each time a conference member
>       joins to read updated items.  See existing cfs for samples.
>     - the logout screen (if any) which displays when users leave your
>       conference
>     - the bulletin which users see when they *first* join your conference
>       (or when it's changed) (if any)
>     - login names of fairwitnesses (beyond you, in this case, if any)
>  4. Once the conference is created, enter an initial item so that
>     others can access it.

response 3 of 143:

Aug 20 05:10 UTC 1998

That hardly matters. With 15,000 "currently active grexers", the more ways
they can be active the better. If it draws new users, that's fine too. Why
does it matter? 

There are "space" related items in the science cf, but "space" is not
just science. I would be interested in knowing all the topics the
space fanciers talk about, but I suspect that a lot of them are outside
the thrust of scientific studies and activitiers, per se.

response 5 of 143:

Aug 20 16:08 UTC 1998

John, BTW, if there are items in other conferences which are relevant and
interesting enough, the FW (you) can link them in, and they just appear in
their existing entirety as items in your conference.  (Additions made in
either conference show up both places - everyone is in fact accessing the same
material, just from two (or more) different directions.)

I also think that this is a very good candidate for its own conference. 
There's definitely some overlap, & I'd think a number of linked items would
be appropriate, but it's got both its own set of related issues and to a good
degree its own constituency.  To whatever degree this specific conference
would have its own specific, organized constituency (in the Ann Arbor Space
Society), that's a plus - but there are lots of folks already on Grex likely
to take an interest.

response 7 of 143:

Aug 20 16:49 UTC 1998

I will participate in the space conference, and it sounds like a great idea.

response 9 of 143:

Aug 21 15:00 UTC 1998

Response has been good from our current members and some from around 
the world.  I am ready to go.  The next step is to EMail the request to 
the conference administrator.  Hope it is put on-line soon.

response 11 of 143:

Aug 25 11:40 UTC 1998

Jan, I have forwarded the necessary conference setup information to the 
conference administrator.  If you here anything additional is needed 
please call or EMail me.

response 13 of 143:

Aug 26 19:39 UTC 1998

If there was controversy, then we would allow more time for discussion. 
Current policy allows for up to a week.  The only way it wouldn't be
created after a week would be if nobody still felt it should be created.

Of course, if you tried hard enough you could probably come up with
something sufficiently controversial to trigger a change in the policy. 
But it's never come up yet.

response 15 of 143:

Aug 26 19:52 UTC 1998

If you go back into some of the conference request items in old coops - which
are all there, I think - you'll see some cases where people raised questions
("why do we need this when we've got that already?") or suggestions which
changed the focus of the proposed conference or caused the proposal to be
dropped by the person proposing it (because some existing conference seemed
reasonable for the function involved, say).  That kind of discussion just takes
more time, that's all.  The policy has always been that you get it if you
still want it.

response 17 of 143:

Aug 27 16:58 UTC 1998

So, "too controversial to be decided immediately, let's wait for consensus".
But not in this case.

response 19 of 143:

Sep 1 10:20 UTC 1998

I have been looking for the 'space' conference name to appear in the 
'Public Issues' section of the  conference list but have not seen it 
yet.  Do I have to setup this up through config somehow?