I was among 400+ people that attended the "Meeting Our Y2K Challenges Together" at the Washington National Cathedral yesterday.

Again, just like I had felt the week before sitting amongst other people in the Washington Post building waiting to hear about Y2K Community Preparedness, I now found myself situated amongst an even larger group of people inside the National Cathedral with all it's majesty and splendour surrounding us. Again, it all seemed so surreal to me that here we all were waiting to find out more about this Y2K issue and hopefully gain more of an insight as to what actions we should be taking. It struck me that this had to be serious otherwise we wouldn't have all been there. If we all really felt that this was just going to be a two or three day wonder we wouldn't have been there and the whole event just wouldn't have been arranged. Those were just some of the thoughts running through my mind while I sat and waited.

I won't go into detail about the morning plenary session. It is on tape at another thread. I shall go and find it after I have finished this and post the URL back here for those that might be interested in listening to it. John Koskinen gave his speech and afterwards craftly gave spin answers to some loaded questions. Paula Gordon, who has written a Working White Paper "A Call to Action", was amongst those in attendance and was the first in line to ask her question. She asked what the government was proposing to do about the embedded-processor problem which she knew couldn't be managed. He spun it right around with a little joke about how they both knew each other well and how they both had different thoughts on this particular subject. He then went on about how it has now been determined by experts that the micro-processor problem is not as bad as was originally thought, etc. Responses to all other questions were likewise cleverly answered.

After the morning session prior to lunch I got to meet up and speak with Paula Gordon to get her feel of what she felt the current situation was. She is even more concerned now, very concerned. She feels very strongly that the embedded-processor problem is unmanageable. She said that there were some in the government who were slowly coming to the realisation of it too. She seems to feel that at some point the public is going to have to be told and that at some point it is going to happen. She is very self-assured and is convinced that this is a huge problem and that the micro-processor problem is totally unmanageable. She recommended that I hook up with a few other people there, one of them a Brit., Martyn Emery, who could fill me in on the UK side of things. I did in fact meet up with him later in the day. He was hooked up with an FDIC official at the last workshop that I attended. We had a long chat and he said that he felt that utilities in the UK like here are not as ahead as they would like us to believe. He and the FDIC official appear to be very concerned about the medical issue. They feel that it shall play out to be the predominant issue of everything. Recommendation for our personal situation was to be in UK on in-laws small farm and stay as isolated as possible because of the health issue. Both have very strong opinions that the health issue is going to be huge everywhere. Emery said that GP's (doctors) in the UK for the most part get the implications of this better than any other official over there. He felt that the local GP should be the first person to get in touch with about community preparedness. I thought this was interesting. If anyone is interested Martyn Emery's website is: http://www.corp2000.com. His pioneering work on city infra-structure analysis has been cited in a recent US Seante Committee hearing and has been presented to the political offices of Senator Patrick Moynihan (NY-D), Councilman Andrew Eristoff (NY-R), Head of the New York Taskforce, The UK Prime Ministers Office at No 10 Downing St., and has met with the Danish Permanent Secretary of IT and Telecoms Policy. In the UK, Martyn started and currently chairs an elite Year 2000 Interest group consisting of many of the countries leading businesses. Martyn has facilitiated a meeting of all the key elements of UK infra-structure to meet the chairman of UK Action 2000 in January 1998. I put all that to perhaps indicate that he is no cabbage-head and at least should know a little bit about what he doth speak about.

After lunch I attended my first of two workshops, 'American Red Cross Community Disaster Collaborations and Y2K'. There was one high ranking Red Cross Official and a FEMA official in attendance. This was the same Red Cross official that had made a presentation at the Washington Post Building last week. I found this workshop and all that was discussed extremely insightful. Again, it was evident why we were all there, and it was not because we just contemplate having to deal with a bump-in-the-road. As both officials made clear if the nation has disruptions going on from coast-to-coast there is no way that individual communities can hope to expect the emergency relief agencies to be able to deal with them all. It was made abundantly clear that communities need to be prepared to deal with situations on their own. The more that we can be prepared as communities the less likely the need for the government to move in and handle the situation (if you get my drift). There was an elderly gentlemen who had his long list of all the Executive Orders drawn up by President Clinton which he had read out to Koskinen earlier and asked about whether the government was planning on over-riding all community efforts by declaring martial law. Koskinen gave an expected spin answer. He brought the same concern up with the Red Cross official who said that he just couldn't answer that question because he didn't know what was going to happen because of the unknown in this. He did say that the more communities are prepared to take care of themselves the better off they will be. That was the obvious motivation of this workshop. At first a few people made issue with the 72 hour prep recommendation and it was clear that as far this workshop went there was really no recommended guideline. It was being left up to each individual group to determine what they felt after researching their vulnerabilities they deemed necessary to prepare for. It was interesting to note that the consensus by all including both officials was that at the moment it was a good time to purchase supplies because there is plenty in the stores and there was still time for inventories to adjust to demand. In fact it was implied that it was a good thing to let suppliers know what was in demand so that production can be upped and met. I thought that I had made a bit of a pest of myself with a few of my statements and questions. However, when the workshop was over the Red Cross official came up to me and thanked me for saying what he felt needed to be said and that it opened the group up and that he felt that he had ended up with a very productive effort because of it. So I got to walk away with a small feather in my Y2K cap. One of my statements was about the fact that I didn't think that the analogy of "A" snow-storm, etc. really applied. I said that I felt that this was purely a Y2K issue and that it was time that it was given the respect due to it and treated as such. I went on to say that I felt that this was a national crisis (not to mention global as well). That at the moment we have governments, businesses, utilitis, and industries, etc. on the front lines battling this bug, and that some of them are going to win their battles, but some, if not many, are not. Thus, the war will not have been won. At which point when the failures start occurring it will be the public and all emergency relief agenices that shall be thrown on the front lines and by and large most of the public shall both be emotionally and physically unprepared to deal with what Y2K might have to throw their way. I pointed out that I felt that while it was good that we were all here trying to deal with this problem and presumably lots of other community groups around the country are attempting to do the same thing that it just all seemed so fragmented. I asked the Red Cross official if this is what communities would be expected to do if the nation was at war. He agreed that the leadership at the national level is lacking, but that there wasn't much he could do about it and that like us he was doing the best he could dealing with the situation as it is. This then lead into a discussion about the WWII effort, etc. The Red Cross official made a point that today's society is very different now in the sense that it is a lot more entrepreneurial. No-one really got into that too much. However, it was clear that the consensus was that it would help if there was more of a national effort. However, both officials did confirm what I already was thinking about. The hope is that in a lot of communities there will already be people who have gone through the differing stages of coming to terms with Y2K and that groups, etc. shall be set-up for when the rest of the populace becomes aware. There was a lot discussion about the differing stages of denial, anger, etc. that people go through. These officials seem to think that the public shall become more aware as the year goes on. This brought about another discussion by various members of the group about how difficult it was to make people understand the seriousness of it. As one man said, "It's difficult even with your own relations." That the spin going on in the media wasn't helping. The officials then explained that you don't want to overwhelm people with all the information that you know straight away. People won't be able to handle that. This only confirms to me a little of perhaps what the agenda might be. You first of all have Y2K groups in communities sprinkled all across the country ready for when the rest of the public slowly become more aware. At which time there shall already be groups set up for them to turn to for information, etc. I know, I know, it's all a bit late, but I still think that that is what is going on. I also, think that there is still this underlying hope that there is still enough time to get enough of it fixed and that the problems won't be too bad. Well, that is pretty much the gist of that workshop. No pressure or intimidation tactics about how bad it is to stockpile, etc. There was a brief mention about cash, panic and bank-runs, but for some reason it didn't really get picked up on and at that time didn't seem to be of too much concern to the group as a whole. Oh, one thing I almost forgot. It was stressed by the Red Cross official that individual preparedness was very important and that we need to make sure that we are prepared individually within our own homes.

When I arrived with some from the same workshop above to the second workshop of our choice, 'Organizing Your Neighborhood' we arrived at the tail-end of another workshop, 'Public Health and Welfare'. We arrivied in time to hear about shelters. A concerned woman was talking about what would happen to her dogs if she had to go to a shelter, and that she had heard that dogs might be shot. (Whoa! what had we stumbled into here I could tell we were all thinking as we looked wide-eyed at each other). The woman was reassured by an official that this had been thought of and that people would be allowed to take their dogs with them, but that the dogs would have to stay in a separate shelter that would be set-up next door to the shelter that people would be in because naturally we couldn't have the dogs in with all the people. Sorry, guys no mention about other pets - just dogs. It then shifted to another question from someone that was still very concerned about the District government's situation and wasn't convinced that all it's computers would get fixed in time. There was a spokesman from IBM. It was then that we discovered that apparently IBM is helping with D.C.'s Y2K fix on a non-contractual basis which is unheard of for IBM. He went on to say though that because it was the Nation's capital they felt that it was only right to be helping them out with this crisis. He did a lot of waffling and did not look like a happy camper at all. In fact non of the panelists at that workshop looked very happy at all. A group of us from the previous workshop remarked that we felt we had obviously missed out on a lot here. That was the end of that workshop and I couldn't help but notice that as they were collecting their things together to leave the IBM guy looked really troubled. BTW I wasn't the only one that noticed. That's why I mentioned it. Definitely picked up on bad vibes coming from that workshop.

Anyhow they shuffled out and we embarked on our next workshop. I won't go into too much detail here. We were given a 'How to Help Your Community Prepare For Y2K' fact sheet and pretty much went through that. People did get into talking about longer term preparation here, however, again with no overall definite recommended time span. It was towards the end of this workshop where a bit more of a heated debate occurred about cash and bank runs. It all started with how much people needed to have on hand, a couple of days, a week, two weeks, a month, or two months. There was an FDIC person in the audience who interjected with a strong statement about how well the banks were doing, they were the most ahead and so on. He got a few questions fired at him. He stated that little banks aren't as reliable as the larger regional banks and that people owed it to themselves to investigate their individual bank's Y2K readiness. He wasn't dealing with compliance because that didn't mean anything, readiness was what he was looking for. Anyhow there were a few more heated exchanges but no resolution. That particular subject like everything else was left with the fact that you shall just have to use your own judgement. However, it was interesting to note that of all the discussions of the day the most sensitive was about cash. It even beat out the great concern about the medical and pharmaceutical issue raised by certain officials.

I left at the end of the day with a few contacts and an increased awareness of the magnitude of this problem. I was amazed at the openess of peoples thoughts and feelings. It amazed me as I was walking away from that majestic building that I had just spent a whole day inside amongst others like me all trying to find the correct path to take to lead our communities through whatever may come. I had a lot to pass on to my already concerned husband and others.

I hope this gives you a little more insight as to how things are shifting and moving.

PS Diane, I met up with Steve Davis and introduced myself at your recommendation. We had a good discussion. Thank you.

-- Carol (usa-uk@email.msn.com), March 12, 1999

Answers

Carol --- Hey, thanks for the "report from the front." Very, very interesting, especially the part about Paula Gordon and Ko-skin-em.

-- BigDog (BigDog@duffer.com), March 12, 1999.

Thank you for the great minutes! I am showing these to my neighbors.

M

-- Margaret (janssm@aol.com), March 12, 1999.

Ok, I'm road weary and need to take a nap...

The transcipt of Koskinen and Wheatley are key. Are they up yet?

Carol, I think the older gentlemen you refer to was addressing Meg. If memory serves me right, Koskinen left before this man could pose his questions about the Executive Orders. But, yes, the Feds sitting below the podium couldn't handle the question (looked perplexed from my vantage point).

I skipped Steve Davis et al to talk with Paula Gordon (she was visible distraught). The status of Trident, the particulars discussed last Monday by electric utility folks (Cowles and Martin were there), and Koskinen's (representing federal official outlook) ignorance of embedded systems had (probably still has) her profoundly disturbed. She and I will talk more, soon.

"When I arrived with some from the same workshop above to the second workshop of our choice, 'Organizing Your Neighborhood' we arrived at the tail-end of another workshop, 'Public Health and Welfare'. We arrivied in time to hear about shelters..."

I was at this one. Carol's impressions are accurate. This meeting was intense. I'm in the process of writing about this now.

Big Dog, this thread is what I was alluding to. I'll add to it as soon as I get some rest.

We really need html transcript of both Koskinen and Wheatley

-if you live 5 miles within a 7 Eleven...

~C~

-- Critt Jarvis (critt@critt.com), March 12, 1999.

Carol

Thank you for your excellent report. I read Paula Gordons White Paper a couple of weeks ago. Very scary and strongly worded. I tried to find the link to post here but couldn't at the time. Found it now and if someone wants to put a link up it is at: www.gwu.edu/~y2k/keypeople/gordon (I really gotta learn to do that myself!)

The middle section of the report is especially timely.

-- Valkyrie (anon@please.net), March 12, 1999.

Thanks Carol. Content is great but format will lose 85% of readers. Periods and paragraphs are not endangered species.

-- hint (123@456.com), March 12, 1999.

Thanks so much for taking the time to tell us about the meeting, Carol. Excellent information, know that it's verymuch appreciated.

-- sparks (wireless@home.com), March 12, 1999.

Morning Plenary Session can be heard at the following URL:

http://www.c athedral.org/cathedral/events/y2k.html

Critt, Yes, I believe you are correct about the older gentlemen addressing his question to Meg. Are you considering on posting your summation to this forum? hint, Point well taken. Sorry about that. This afternoon I just received some bad news and have to go out of town for an indefinite period. I have been in a bit of a tizzy ever since and have been trying to get too many things done at once. Silly me thought that I should try and get something posted before I left. I'm not sure if I will have access to a computer over the next few days. I apologise for acting in haste and producing a poor product. I have to dash again - the dryer has alerted me that it has finished it's cycle. Got lots of packing and such to do. Mind you, having said that I most probably would still have ended up writing a shoddy piece. I don't think writing is one of my fortes. Not to worry though. I have other things on my mind right now that are of more importance. Hopefully Critt shall post a better summation on the forum for others to read. Bye for now.

-- Carol (usa-uk@email.msn.com), March 12, 1999.

link

Thank you, Carol and Critt.

-- Rachel Gibson (rgibson@hotmail.com), March 12, 1999.

PS

Why don't ALL my paragraphs come out as formatted when they are posted?

Some paragraphs come out and others don't.

Well, I really do have to go.

-- Carol (usa-uk@email.msn.com), March 12, 1999.

Oops! I'll try one more time:

http://www.gwu.edu/~y2k/ keypeople/gordon

-- Rachel Gibson (rgibson@hotmail.com), March 12, 1999.

Carol: Next time double space for a paragraph break. Thanks again for the info.

-- hint (123@456.com), March 12, 1999.

This is a wonderful summary. I managed to listen pieces of it - I tuned in just in time to listen to Meg Wheatley give it to Kosky about the BS of percentages. I also believe that her response to the man about the executive orders is that we should give that about the same notice we give other things we get from the federal government, which is to ignore it. Her response said she believed that the government will do what it will do and that we will do what we normally do, which essentially implies that the government will have its normal range of efficacy. (The reader can render their own definition.) Put another way, if they are as effective in giving it to us next year as they are with their Y2K percentages, then 79% of 6.7% of us will do just fine and never see them.

-- Brett (savvydad@aol.com), March 12, 1999.

Carol,

Take time for yourself. Your posting is fine...

Folks, an html transcript of Koskinen and Wheatley would be more meaningful than the spin coming off the Senate Y2K Report.

-got humility?

~C~

-- Critt Jarvis (critt@critt.com), March 12, 1999.

Real Audio bookmarks:

http://www.greenspun.com/bboard/q-and-a-fetch- msg.tcl?msg_id=000bVE

Must go to bed now.

~C~

-- Critt Jarvis (critt@critt.com), March 13, 1999.

Thank you for the excellent and detailed report, Carol. In case there really are some readers out there who were somewhat overwhelmed by the mega-paragraphs, I've taken the liberty of re-formatting the posting with a few more paragraphs and some minor spelling corrections. I did leave in the Brit spelling (e.g., "splendour"), as this is a distinctive quality of your postings. Thank you again - it is an extremely valuable document.

===============================================

I was among 400+ people that attended the "Meeting Our Y2K Challenges Together" at the Washington National Cathedral yesterday.

Again, just like I had felt the week before sitting amongst other people in the Washington Post building waiting to hear about Y2K Community Preparedness, I now found myself situated amongst an even larger group of people inside the National Cathedral with all its majesty and splendour surrounding us. Again, it all seemed so surreal to me: here we all were waiting to find out more about this Y2K issue and hopefully gain more of an insight as to what actions we should be taking. It struck me that this had to be serious otherwise we wouldn't have all been there. If we all really felt that this was just going to be a two or three day wonder, we wouldn't have been there and the whole event just wouldn't have been arranged. Those were just some of the thoughts running through my mind while I sat and waited.

I won't go into detail about the morning plenary session. It is on tape at another thread. I shall go and find it after I have finished this and post the URL back here for those that might be interested in listening to it. John Koskinen gave his speech and afterwards craftily gave spin answers to some loaded questions.

Paula Gordon, who has written a Working White Paper "A Call to Action", was amongst those in attendance and was the first in line to ask her question. She asked what the government was proposing to do about the embedded-processor problem which she knew couldn't be managed. He spun it right around with a little joke about how they both knew each other well and how they both had different thoughts on this particular subject. He then went on about how it has now been determined by experts that the micro-processor problem is not as bad as was originally thought, etc. Responses to all other questions were likewise cleverly answered.

After the morning session prior to lunch, I got to meet up and speak with Paula Gordon to get her feel of what she felt the current situation was. She is even more concerned now, very concerned. She feels very strongly that the embedded-processor problem is unmanageable. She said that there were some in the government who were slowly coming to the realisation of it too. She seems to feel that at some point the public is going to have to be told and that at some point it is going to happen. She is very self-assured and is convinced that this is a huge problem and that the micro-processor problem is totally unmanageable.

She recommended that I hook up with a few other people there, one of them a Brit, Martyn Emery, who could fill me in on the UK side of things. I did in fact meet up with him later in the day. He was hooked up with an FDIC official at the last workshop that I attended. We had a long chat and he said he felt that utilities in the UK as here are not as ahead as they would like us to believe. He and the FDIC official appear to be very concerned about the medical issue. They feel that it shall play out to be the predominant issue of everything.

Recommendation for our personal situation was to be in UK on in-laws small farm and stay as isolated as possible because of the health issue. Both have very strong opinions that the health issue is going to be huge everywhere. Emery said that GP's (doctors) in the UK for the most part get the implications of this better than any other official over there. He felt that the local GP should be the first person to get in touch with about community preparedness. I thought this was interesting.

If anyone is interested, Martyn Emery's website is: http://www.corp2000.com. His pioneering work on city infra-structure analysis has been cited in a recent US Senate Committee hearing. In addition, his findings have been presented to the political offices of Senator Patrick Moynihan (NY-D), Councilman Andrew Eristoff (NY-R), Head of the New York Taskforce, and The UK Prime Ministers Office at No 10 Downing St. Martyn has also met with the Danish Permanent Secretary of IT and Telecoms Policy. In the UK, Martyn started and currently chairs an elite Year 2000 Interest group consisting of many of the countries leading businesses. Martyn has facilitated a meeting of all the key elements of UK infra-structure to meet the chairman of UK Action 2000 in January 1998. I put all that to perhaps indicate that he is no cabbage-head and at least should know a little bit about what he doth speak.

After lunch I attended my first of two workshops, 'American Red Cross Community Disaster Collaborations and Y2K.' There was one high ranking Red Cross Official and a FEMA official in attendance. This was the same Red Cross official that had made a presentation at the Washington Post Building last week. I found this workshop and all that was discussed extremely insightful.

Again, it was evident why we were all there, and it was not because we just contemplate having to deal with a bump-in-the-road. As both officials made clear, if the nation has disruptions going on from coast-to-coast, there is no way that individual communities can hope to expect the emergency relief agencies to be able to deal with them all. It was made abundantly clear that communities need to be prepared to deal with situations on their own. The more that we can be prepared as communities, the less likely the need for the government to move in and handle the situation (if you get my drift).

There was an elderly gentleman who had his long list of all the Executive Orders drawn up by President Clinton which he had read out to Koskinen earlier. He asked about whether the government was planning on over-riding all community efforts by declaring martial law. Koskinen gave an expected spin answer. He brought the same concern up with the Red Cross official who said that he just couldn't answer that question because he didn't know what was going to happen because of the unknown in this. He did say that the more communities are prepared to take care of themselves the better off they will be. That was the obvious motivation of this workshop.

At first a few people made issue with the 72 hour prep recommendation and it was clear that as far this workshop went there was really no recommended guideline. It was being left up to each individual group to determine what they felt after researching their vulnerabilities they deemed necessary to prepare for. It was interesting to note that the consensus by all (including both officials) was that at the moment it was a good time to purchase supplies; there is plenty in the stores and there was still time for inventories to adjust to demand. In fact it was implied that it was a good thing to let suppliers know what was in demand so that production can be upped and met.

I thought that I had made a bit of a pest of myself with a few of my statements and questions. However, when the workshop was over, the Red Cross official came up to me and thanked me for saying what he felt needed to be said. He said that it opened the group up and that he felt that he had ended up with a very productive effort because of it. So I got to walk away with a small feather in my Y2K cap.

One of my statements was about the fact that I didn't think that the analogy of "A" snow-storm, etc. really applied. I said that I felt that this was purely a Y2K issue and that it was time that it was given the respect due to it and treated as such. I went on to say that I felt that this was a national crisis (not to mention global as well). That at the moment we have governments, businesses, utilities, and industries, etc. on the front lines battling this bug, and that some of them are going to win their battles, but some, if not many, are not. Thus, the war will not have been won. At which point, when the failures start occurring, it will be the public and all emergency relief agencies that shall be thrown on the front lines. By and large most of the public shall both be emotionally and physically unprepared to deal with what Y2K might have to throw their way. I pointed out that I felt that while it was good that we were all here trying to deal with this problem, and presumably lots of other community groups around the country are attempting to do the same thing, that it just all seemed so fragmented. I asked the Red Cross official if this is what communities would be expected to do if the nation was at war. He agreed that the leadership at the national level is lacking, but that there wasn't much he could do about it and that like us he was doing the best he could dealing with the situation as it is.

This then lead into a discussion about the WWII effort, etc. The Red Cross official made a point that today's society is very different now in the sense that it is a lot more entrepreneurial. No-one really got into that too much. However, it was clear that the consensus was that it would help if there was more of a national effort. However, both officials did confirm what I already was thinking about. The hope is that in a lot of communities there will already be people who have gone through the differing stages of coming to terms with Y2K and that groups, etc. shall be set-up for when the rest of the populace becomes aware.

There was a lot discussion about the differing stages of denial, anger, etc. that people go through. These officials seem to think that the public shall become more aware as the year goes on. This brought about another discussion by various members of the group about how difficult it was to make people understand the seriousness of it. As one man said, "It's difficult even with your own relations." That the spin going on in the media wasn't helping. The officials then explained that you don't want to overwhelm people with all the information that you know straight away. People won't be able to handle that. This only confirms to me a little of perhaps what the agenda might be. You first of all have Y2K groups in communities sprinkled all across the country ready for when the rest of the public slowly become more aware. At which time there shall already be groups set up for them to turn to for information, etc. I know, I know, it's all a bit late, but I still think that that is what is going on. I also think that there is still this underlying hope that there is still enough time to get enough of it fixed and that the problems won't be too bad.

Well, that is pretty much the gist of that workshop. No pressure or intimidation tactics about how bad it is to stockpile, etc. There was a brief mention about cash, panic and bank-runs, but for some reason it didn't really get picked up on and at that time didn't seem to be of too much concern to the group as a whole. Oh, one thing I almost forgot. It was stressed by the Red Cross official that individual preparedness was very important and that we need to make sure that we are prepared individually within our own homes.

When I arrived with some from the same workshop above to the second workshop of our choice, 'Organizing Your Neighborhood' we arrived at the tail-end of another workshop, 'Public Health and Welfare'. We arrived in time to hear about shelters. A concerned woman was talking about what would happen to her dogs if she had to go to a shelter, and that she had heard that dogs might be shot. (Whoa! what had we stumbled into here I could tell we were all thinking as we looked wide-eyed at each other). The woman was reassured by an official that this had been thought of and that people would be allowed to take their dogs with them, but that the dogs would have to stay in a separate shelter that would be set-up next door to the shelter that people would be in because naturally we couldn't have the dogs in with all the people. Sorry, guys no mention about other pets - just dogs.

It then shifted to another question from someone that was still very concerned about the District government's situation and wasn't convinced that all its computers would be fixed in time. There was a spokesman from IBM. It was then that we discovered that apparently IBM is helping with D.C.'s Y2K fix on a non-contractual basis which is unheard of for IBM. He went on to say though that because it was the Nation's capital they felt that it was only right to be helping them out with this crisis. He did a lot of waffling and did not look like a happy camper at all. In fact none of the panelists at that workshop looked very happy at all. A group of us from the previous workshop remarked that we felt we had obviously missed out on a lot here. That was the end of that workshop and I couldn't help but notice that as they were collecting their things together to leave the IBM guy looked really troubled. BTW I wasn't the only one that noticed. That's why I mentioned it. Definitely picked up on bad vibes coming from that workshop.

Anyhow they shuffled out and we embarked on our next workshop. I won't go into too much detail here. We were given a 'How to Help Your Community Prepare For Y2K' fact sheet and pretty much went through that. People did get into talking about longer term preparation here, however, again with no overall definite recommended time span.

It was towards the end of this workshop where a bit more of a heated debate occurred about cash and bank runs. It all started with how much people needed to have on hand, a couple of days, a week, two weeks, a month, or two months. There was an FDIC person in the audience who interjected with a strong statement about how well the banks were doing, they were the most ahead and so on. He got a few questions fired at him. He stated that little banks aren't as reliable as the larger regional banks and that people owed it to themselves to investigate their individual bank's Y2K readiness. He wasn't dealing with compliance because that didn't mean anything, readiness was what he was looking for. Anyhow there were a few more heated exchanges but no resolution. That particular subject, like everything else, was left with the fact that you shall just have to use your own judgment. However, it was interesting to note that of all the discussions of the day the most sensitive was about cash. It even beat out the great concern about the medical and pharmaceutical issue raised by certain officials.

I left at the end of the day with a few contacts and an increased awareness of the magnitude of this problem. I was amazed at the openness of peoples thoughts and feelings. It amazed me as I was walking away from that majestic building that I had just spent a whole day inside amongst others like me, all trying to find the correct path to take to lead our communities through whatever may come. I had a lot to pass on to my already concerned husband and others.

I hope this gives you a little more insight as to how things are shifting and moving.

PS to Diane,

I met up with Steve Davis and introduced myself at your recommendation. We had a good discussion.

Thank you.

===============================================

-- Mac (sneak@lurk.com), March 13, 1999.

If any of you know where transcripts of any or all of the above may be found, please post. In the meantime, thanks Carol--and others--for your hard work.

-- FM (vidprof@aol.com), March 13, 1999.

Wonderful job Carol!!

Thanks so much, and DO take time out to refresh, in the midst of personal choas.

Diane

-- Diane J. Squire (sacredspaces@yahoo.com), March 13, 1999.

You gave us a real feel for the forum. Terrific job. I hope everything is alright and look forward to your return.

-- Mike Lang (webflier@erols.com), March 13, 1999.

I was seated on the settee in the sun of the window next to Carol in the library of the Cathedral. I like her assessment of the Red Cross presentation. FWIW I would not give too much credance to any view of government which grants it a great deal of foresight or planning. The conference was arranged at very short notice and it was a miracle.Cheers, AGF

-- Guy (dracon301@aol.com), March 13, 1999.

Where is Critt's take on the whole thing? Good job Carol.

-- looking for Critt's post (hesaid@here.somewhere?), March 13, 1999.

First printable reponse:

http://www.greenspun.com/bboard/q-and-a-fetch- msg.tcl?msg_id=000bjx

More to follow, especially if that session ever comes out in html format.

~C~

-- Critt Jarvis (critt@critt.com), March 14, 1999.