Re: Welcoming newcomers

[Bill Manning <bmanning at zed.isi.edu>]

% > Bill said:
% >       a "winnowing" process is now in effect, making it harder, perhaps
% >       much harder to allow individual contribution. If I was starting today,
% >       I'd avoid the IETF as a venue.
% 
% If we are projecting this image, it's a problem. But given the constant
% increase in attendance, I doubt if it's really the case. Certainly in my
% own WG we have some very active participants who weren't at all involved when
% we started, and some of the early activists have moved on.
% 
% If you think that good newcomers are not getting a fair hearing, recommend
% them to the ADs as WG chairs. And mentor any newcomers that you happen to know.
% 
%   Brian

I have reason to beleive that newcomers are NOT getting a fair hearing.
Attached is a sanitized bit of email I received in the last week. 
	------------------------------------

<        Just surfed the <WG> archive in response to the issues raised at
<the IETF plenary. Are the recent posts representative of the standard mode
<of discussion for the list? 
<
<        I am trying to decide the extent to which I wish to become involved
<in the <specific> area. So far I have had the area director hiss at me when I
<stated my company name at the <WG> meeting and been told that certain
<solutions could not exist because 'so many clever people have already
<considered the problem'.



-- 
--bill