The reason we have the "deadline" is to protect the Secretariat from having to be heroes. However, best would be if the need for such protection didn't arise. Instead of assuming that things to be discussed in the meetings will be written just before the meeting, and creating complexity and bureaucracy around that assumption, institute a policy that nothing *will* be discussed in the meeting unless it has already been discussed on the mailing list and the WG has failed to reach agreement on the issue (note this is about issues, not documents). This will reduce the number of drafts which must get out just before the meeting to only those which capture the result of ongoing discussion. The others won't get discussed anyway. OK, I'm optimistic, but I see all this discussion of mechanisms to elaborate a situation we don't want to be in in the first place. swb _______________________________________________ Ietf@xxxxxxxx https://www1.ietf.org/mailman/listinfo/ietf