Re: A poll to consider changing the weekly QT4CG meeting time

Hi Norm,

Thanks for asking this.

Just a short observation that if the chosen time is "GMT" then the local
meeting times will jump with one hour twice a year, when we change from/to
normal time to daylight-saving time.

In order to avoid this, could the columns' headings be renamed from GMT to
CGMT (Current GMT - supposed to mean GMT + X, where X = 0 in Nov - March,
and 1 otherwise) ?

Thanks,
Dimitre

On Thu, Jan 4, 2024 at 8:56 AM Norm Tovey-Walsh <norm@saxonica.com> wrote:

> Hello folks,
>
> I swear I wrote this message in December, shortly after our last
> meeting, and sent it to the list, but I can’t find any trace of it in
> the archives and no one has replied, so I must have hallucinated it.
>
> We’ve been meeting at 16:00 UK time (17:00CET, 11:00EST at the moment)
> on Tuesdays for some time. When we chose that time, it was the least
> worst option, but it was an impossible time for some.
>
> Just before the holiday break, I asked if the group would consider
> changing the time. Perhaps schedules have changed and there’s a new
> option that’s least worst for more of us?
>
> The problem is that the possible meeting times are very constrained.
> Mondays and Fridays are unsuccessful days for meetings in my
> experience. If we want to be as gracious as possible to the folks on
> both the Pacific coast of the United States and in Europe, we’re
> pretty much stuck with 16:00 UK time. If everyone on the Pacific coast
> of the United States wants to start at 07:00, we could go to 15:00 UK
> time. If everyone in Europe is willing to start at 18:00, we could go
> to 17:00 UK time.
>
> With all that said, let’s give this a try. If you are interested in
> participating in the weekly calls, please complete the form below and
> send it to me, at least, the list if you wish.
>
> Put a “1” in any slot you’d be happy to meet in. Put a “2” in any slot
> you’d be willing to meet in. Leave blank any slots that you are
> unwilling or unable to meet. (If you don’t reply, I’m going to assume
> you would have replied with a “1” in every slot!)
>
>             | 16:00 GMT | 17:00 GMT | 18:00 GMT |
> |-----------+-----------+-----------+-----------|
> | Tuesday   |           |           |           |
> |-----------+-----------+-----------+-----------|
> | Wednesday |           |           |           |
> |-----------+-----------+-----------+-----------|
> | Thursday  |           |           |           |
> |-----------+-----------+-----------+-----------|
>
> A couple of folks proposed that we could have two different meeting
> times, alternating weeks. (For example, Tuesday@16:00 one week and
> Wednesday@17:00 the next, in alternation).
>
> I don’t have a high degree of confidence that such a scheme would be
> successful. If some participants can only meet every other week, I think
> they will find it frustrating. For participants planning to meet every
> week, I can easily imagine missed meetings because they thought it was
> “the other” week. But I’ll keep that option open when I have a complete
> set of numbers.
>
> This *is not* a proposal to change the time for our next scheduled
> meeting, 16:00GMT (17:00CET, 11:00EST) on Tuesday, 9 January 2024.
>
>                                         Be seeing you,
>                                           norm
>
> --
> Norm Tovey-Walsh
> Saxonica
>