Michael Doyle in his apology, provided the following background:

> For those of you who are interested, I  thought I would take a bit
> of your time  to outline some of the issues leading  up to and
> including the e-mail.  Jean mentioned "anti Interex nonsense" that
> had been taking place on the 3000-L. "Nonsense" is an emotional and
> poor choice of words. I assure you that many of the staff at Interex
> (myself included) "lurk" on the list in order to gain a better
> understanding of the issues and concerns of MPE  users. The
> discussions that are critical of Interex are reviewed so that we
> might be able to change things that we do in order to better serve
> our members and the general HP user community. Sometimes the
> discussions are difficult for the staff to read.

In addition to being emotional and ill-chosen, Jean's comments are very,
very disturbing and symptomatic of a larger problem.

As a new volunteer with Interex in 1987, I was shocked to find the "us
vs.
them" attitude which many staff members harbored toward not only
volunteers,
but some of the more vocal - and critical - members.

This problem was recognized and addressed at that time through staff and
volunteer participation in encounter sessions, team-building exercises
and
strategic planning meetings.

Ten years later, natural attrition has brought Interex a new management
team,
different staff members and fresh volunteers.

Why is it then that the adversarial attitude still survives?

---
Dale Halterman          Wumly Consulting Services, Inc.
510/703-5849    mailto:[log in to unmask]  http://www.wumly.com
  "Professional Services to Information Systems Management"
    specializing on all types of HP equipment since 1988.