Meeting Cancellation Rationale

[johnkarls]

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-------------------------- Original Message --------------------------
From: ReadingLiberally-SaltLake@johnkarls.com
To: ReadingLiberallyEmailList@johnkarls.com
Bcc: (Please See Below)
Subject: Meeting Cancellation
Date: Mon, June 10, 2013
Time: 3:29 am
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Keith Cupples
Ted Gurney
Nancy Kemp
June Taylor

Dear Friends,

It is with a sad and heavy heart that I am forced to inform you that our meeting for this Wednesday, June 12, has had to be cancelled for lack of a quorum.

This marks only the second time in our 7.5-year history that we were unable to muster our minimum quorum of 6 (though our average attendance for at least the last several years has been 10-11).

When we were forced to cancel 3 years ago our May 2010 meeting, there was a Hue & Cry over why we couldn't just bend our rules once in a while.

[The irony is that May 2010 would have been your first meeting, Nancy, and you would have been our 6th attendee completing our minimum quorum, but Denise Chancellor had sent the Heads Up that you were coming to ReadingLiberallyEmailList@johnkarls.com which is a dummy mailbox that is not used for anything except the "To" on our regular e-mails and is only cleaned out every few months.]

Our official answer to the Hue & Cry was that compromising standards is the same as having no standards at all and (1) prospective attendees have the right to be assured that there will be a minimum number of participants, and (2) our famous (at least to us) Six-Degrees-Of-Separation E-mails to America's decision makers should also have the unanimous support from, or the concurrence (which we define as a maximum of one dissent) of, a minimum number of participants.

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Book for Wednesday July 9th

Since our regular policy is for the next month's book to be selected by the attendees of the previous month's meeting which has now been cancelled, we will follow the policy employed for the cancellation of the May 2010 meeting and focus on the proposal which has received the most "views" on http://www.ReadingLiberally-SaltLake.org.

[That proposal has actually been the second-highest vote getter since being posted on our bulletin board and has had more than 10 times as many “views” as the other three current proposals combined.]

Accordingly, our focus for July 9th will be Thistle and The Drone: How America's War on Terror Became a Global War on Tribal Islam by Akbar Ahmed ($23.96 + shipping hard cover & $18.12 kindle edition from Amazon.com - 440 pages)

A former Pakistani Tribal Chief, Akbar Ahmed is the Ibn Khaldun Chair of Islamic Studies at American University in Washington, D.C. He was the former Pakistani High Commissioner to the United Kingdom (NB: The Ambassador of one member of the British Commonwealth to another member of the British Commonwealth is known as the High Commissioner rather than as the Ambassador), the first Distinguished Chair of Middle East Studies at the U.S. Naval Academy, and is a nonresident senior fellow at the Brookings Institution. Among his previous books are Journey into Islam and Journey into America, both published by Brookings. He is also a published poet and playwright.

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Recruiting New Members

Please forgive my regular sermon which, in your case, is the proverbial Preaching To The Choir!!! After all, you are the backbone of Reading Liberally attending in your case, Nancy, 26 of the 36 monthly meetings (72%) since our last cancellation, 30 out of 36 (83%) June, and all 36 (100%) Ted. [Keith has been a regular since joining last January.]

However, replenishing the ranks is a constant labor of love and requires quite a bit of effort.

Indeed, you might be interested to know that since the founding of DRINKING Liberally in NYC 10 years ago this summer, the number of DL chapters around the country has ranged from a minimum of 300 to a high of over 500 in 2008 and again in 2012, but there were only very briefly 2-3 other Reading Liberally chapters at the time of the 2008 election which died after only 5-6 months of existence and again only very briefly 2-3 more at the time of the 2012 election, the last of which is currently dying.

You might also be interested in knowing that during our 7.5-year history, 77 different people have attended at least one of our meetings and that we still have a pool of approximately 30 regulars and, depending on the topic, semi-regulars. [The other 120 recipients of our weekly e-mail, approximately 30 of whom live elsewhere including abroad, are primarily prospects whom I have attempted to cultivate and who remain on our E-mail list in order to keep abreast of what we are doing without attending our meetings.]

And although we 5 usually put us on the cusp of a quorum each month before we even send out the RSVP-request notice, several of our long-time regulars are disappearing. [Bill Lee who was present with me "at the creation" in the Fall of 2005 is probably moving to Seattle; and following Denise Chancellor's retirement as a Utah Assistant Attorney General last year, she and Thomas appear to be drifting away -- at least June 12th would have been their third miss in a row.]

So please give serious consideration to which FRAN’s (friends, relatives, acquaintances and neighbors) might be good prospects.

And to the groups to which you belong (or which you might join) that might harbor good prospects.

To get your creative juices flowing, the following illustrations are offered:

(1) RELIGIOUS ORGANIZATIONS. For the next 10 Sunday mornings, Keith Cupples and I will be on a mission to, inter alia, recruit new RL members. Religious organizations have been a good recruiting grounds -- you, June, and you, Keith, were both recruited at churches I was attending; Hugh Paik, a Korean and a U/Utah Hospital Pathologist from the church I have been attending recently, has said he will attend regularly after he returns from his 3-month assignment to Ecuador; and Pastor Mary from Kenya who is currently studying at the U/Utah while her husband is working here as an urban planner until she earns her degree, both sounded very excited yesterday morning to learn about Reading Liberally and said they plan to attend regularly.

NB: However, vis-à-vis Hugh, Pastor Mary and her husband, it is wise to remember the Old English Proverb that is worthy of The Bard = "There is many a slip 'twixt cup and lip!!!"

(2) SLC NEWCOMERS. Unlike other cities, SLC Newcomers is open to everyone whether or not they have ever lived elsewhere (it is often jokingly called The SLC Non-LDS Society) and open on a permanent basis (vs. typically only 12 months elsewhere). I am re-joining in order to ascertain whether there are any new SLC “newcomers” who might be interested in Reading Liberally. [NB: A year or so before RL was formed in 2005, I tried to start a politically-oriented reading group similar to the ones I have always attended at the Harvard Club of NYC and even though SLC Newcomers had a membership of more than 700 at the time, there was nobody (i.e., absolutely zero!!!) interested in a politically-oriented reading group even though Newcomers already had two monthly fiction reading groups.]

(3) U/UTAH HUMANITIES DEPARTMENT HAPPY HOURS FOR THE PUBLIC AT LARGE (i.e., non-alumni). This has been a good recruiting grounds in the past. For example, this is where I recruited Thomas and Denise Chancellor 4-5 years ago, and recruited Marilyn Miller and Julie Swaner last year. However, the HH's are only bi-monthly in recent years and occur only during the academic year.

(4) ALTA SKI RESORT OLD TIMERS. I will join the Old Timers next ski season if Reading Liberally is still in operation (if we fold before then, 7.5 years has been a good run!!!). Heretofore, I have refused to join because I didn't want anyone to think I was that old, but at 71 what is there to hide??? Besides, I sat down at their table the end of last ski season to talk to Hugh Paik (please see Category 1 above) and Hugh convinced right in front of me two of his Old-Timer ski buddies that they should attend Reading Liberally when they return to SLC for next ski season.

(5) NEIGHBORS WHILE WALKING DANDY LION (MY GOLDEN RETRIEVER). You should never miss an opportunity to weave politics into every conversation that you have with everyone and, if s/he shows any interest, invite her/him to Reading Liberally. Such a conversation with a new neighbor a few weeks ago resulted in his asking to be added to the E-mail List and in his comment a few days later that he intends to attend RL. He is a recently-retired Georgetown Law Professor. [Though the cup-and-lip proverb should be kept in mind with respect to him also!!!]

(6) DRINKING LIBERALLY. Although DRINKING Liberally of SLC is nominally a "sister organization" and our e-mails always contain a PPS about them in order to avoid complaints, there has never been anyone from Drinking Liberally that attended one of our meetings (vs. some of our members giving Drinking Liberally a try). This despite putting notices about our meetings in their weekly E-mails for several years before finally throwing in the towel. It would appear that their members are only interested in socializing rather than engaging in serious discussions. But if somebody is willing to attend their meetings to see whether they have any newcomers who might be interested in Reading Liberally, it is probably worth the effort (just like I am re-joining SLC Newcomers to see whether there are any new prospects there in what had previously been a desert).

So there we have it. Voilà. Good hunting!!!

Your friend,

John K.


-------------------------- Original Message --------------------------
From: ReadingLiberally-SaltLake@johnkarls.com
To: ReadingLiberallyEmailList@johnkarls.com
Bcc: Our E-mail List of Approximately 150
Subject: Attendance Confirmation Request for This Wednesday - June 12th
Date: Sat, June 8, 2013
Time: 12:30 am - 2:03 am
Attachments:
RL-z525-FirstQuizQuestions+Answers
RL-z601-SecondQuizQuestions+Answers
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Dear Friends,

Although our next meeting is scheduled for this Wednesday June 12th at the Salt Lake Public Library (210 East 400 South) with socializing from 6:15 > 7:00 pm and a formal discussion from 7:00 pm > 8:45 pm, we have had a long-standing policy which has only had to be implemented once in our 7.5-year history that we will cancel any meeting which does not have at least 6 prospective attendees.

Many of you on this e-mail list of approximately 150 may not have been aware of this policy, since we usually have only asked recent attendees to confirm a week in advance whether they will attend and, with one exception 3 years ago, there have always been at least 6 from this group. Indeed, attendance has been averaging 10-11 for the last several years (and probably earlier without checking older records).

However, we only have 5 prospective attendees for this Wednesday evening.

Since some of you who have not attended recently might have been planning to come and might already have read the book on which we are focusing, it would not be fair to cancel the meeting if you would have helped us reach our minimum quorum of 6.

In addition, we have always had a policy that first-time attendees are welcome to attend and participate even if they haven't had time to read the suggested materials. [For any first-time attendee, the attached Q&A's that were sent with our last two weekly e-mails would provide more than enough background information to benefit from attending and participating in the meeting.]

Accordingly, if you are planning/willing to come, please press "return" and type "I will attend" by 11:59 pm tomorrow evening (Sunday). I will send out a pre-dawn Monday e-mail solely to those who have RSVP'd to indicate whether the meeting will take place as scheduled.


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Our focus for June 12th is The New Digital Age - Reshaping The Future of People, Nations and Business by Google's Executive Chairman and Long-Time CEO, Eric Schmidt, and Google Idea's Director, Jared Cohen (Knopf 4/23/2013 - $15.48 from Amazon.com - 257 pages sans footnotes and index).

[More extensive biographies of our authors can be found on http://www.ReadingLiberally-SaltLake.org, as can book reviews by the NY Times, The London Guardian/Observer and the London Telegraph as well as an interview of the authors about their new book by the Huffington Post.]

Testimonials include --

BILL CLINTON -- "Every day, technological innovations are giving people around the world new opportunities to shape their own destinies. In this fascinating book, Eric Schmidt and Jared Cohen draw upon their unique experiences to show us a future of rising incomes, growing participation and a genuine sense of community -- IF we make the right choices today." (original emphasis on IF)

MADELEINE ALBRIGHT -- "This is the book I have been waiting for: a concise and persuasive description of technology's impact on war, peace, freedom and diplomacy. The New Digital Age is a guide to the future written by two experts who possess a profound understanding of humanity's altered prospects in a wireless world."

HENRY KISSINGER -- "Eric Schmidt and Jared Cohen have produced a searching meditation on technology and world order. Even those who disagree with some of their conclusions will learn much from this thought-provoking volume."

TONY BLAIR (Former UK Labor Prime Minister) -- "This is a book that describes a technological revolution in the making. How we navigate it is a challenge for countries, communities and citizens. There are no two people better equipped to explain what it means than Eric Schmidt and Jared Cohen."


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We hope to see all of you on Wednesday.

Your friend,

John K.

PS - To un-subscribe, please press "reply" and type "deletion requested."

PPS - Our sister organization, Drinking Liberally, usually meets twice a month on Friday evenings for socializing with like-minded individuals from 6:30 pm > 9:30 pm at Piper Down (1492 South State Street).