Hi

On Nov 25, 2010, at 12:10 AM, Avri Doria wrote:

> 
> At our last meeting, they seemed bored with the activity, some worked on their laptops the whole time, one reprimanded us for staff bashing and the chair told us we better have a really good reason for asking to meet with them again.  

True
> 
> Robin thinks it is important to meet with them because it is the only time we get to meet with them face to face without the intervening staff filter.  She has a point there.

True

On balance I'd say that unless we have particular pressing points we need to take up with them it'd be better to defer until we do.  Perhaps we'll get a little credit for sparing them that can be cashed later.  It's not just us BTW, they've been looking to cut meetings-for-meetings-sake with other groupings, and even floated in Brussels the idea of canceling the dinner with the GNSO Council. So they're clearly looking to move from an obligatory touching base with everyone model to a what's the most value-adding for us model (didn't they have some private receptions with biz types last time?), and if we insist without any particular reason it might not earn good will.

Best,

Bill