Originally Posted by Bucking Bar

You make a pragmatic point. In the past you have also advocated the importance of following procedure. As you stated, "process matters." Process particularly matters to the guy who loses the debate. Organizational rules exist to protect the minority view, since the majority is usually adept at taking care of itself.

In this matter, I believe my MEC's action was appropriate given the political reality that the deal was already done, debate prior to the February MEC meeting would have been unlikely to change anything.

Perhaps consideration should be given to refining the MEC Admin manual to more thoroughly consider the idea of virtual meetings. As a line guy, I would like a provision for members to view open sessions and to address the MEC, as allowed by the Chairman, in similar fashion to what we allow in meetings were all are present.