*> *> But in the scenarios you allude to, pretty much *all* of the work to *> address those problems should have been handled on the WG mailing *> list. Also, standards do not get approved at IETF meetings (referring *> to your "rubber stamped by Cisco" comments), so there's no need to *> show up to "vote" for your favourite protocol. *> *> Being practical, you only *need* to attend a meeting if there is an *> intractable problem in front of a WG you're actively participating in, *> and solving that problem requires a face-to-face session. It would be nice if this were true. However, something we have learned from nearly 30 years of using email for designing network protocols: email is a great way to carry on complex technical discussions and to solve technical problems, but it is generally ineffective for making group decisions. That is why face-face meetings are still needed. Bob Braden