[council] GNSO Council meet and greet?

["Gomes, Chuck" <cgomes@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Under Item 9 on our Council agenda this week the topic is "Proposal by
Registrars for a council meet & greet (discussion and socializing)".  I
want to thank Adrian and the registrars for the suggestions they put
forward and also thank everyone who participated in the online
discussion of the ideas for Council interaction in Seoul.
 
Based on what I saw discussed on the list, I have come to the following
conclusions:

1.      Regarding what I will refer to as a possible "gripe" session, I
don't believe it is realistic for us to reach even rough consensus about
holding such a session, so I suggest we not spend any more time on this
idea.
2.      There seemed to be strong support for some social interaction of
Councilors.

With regard to the latter idea, Bruce Tonkin shared some thoughts with
Avri, Adrian and I that I think were helpful that I would like to pass
on for Council consideration when we cover the related agenda item on
Thursday:
 
"It is difficult to make an informal dinner at a restaurant work. The
Board (which is just as big) has tended to use the following approach
which is a reasonable compromise. (1) Find a restaurant that has a
private room. This often has the benefit that it is quieter and possible
to hear conversations a few seats down.  (2) Find a restaurant that has
a suitable pre/post dinner drinks area - where people can more
informally interact before and after sitting down. (3) Try to mix things
up a bit between courses - move people around. This doesn't always
happen - but I think it can be useful. The Board did this when the new
CEO joined for example." 

If there is interest in doing this, we could possibly impose on Staff to
explore the possibility for Saturday night in Seoul.

Thoughts?

Chuck