Well said, Mike! Consider the NLS committee, and how slowly the wheels turn, if they turn at all... We as volunteers and users have direct contact with the staff! Sue S. ----- Original Message ----- From: "Mike Pietruk" <pietruk@xxxxxxxxx> To: <bksvol-discuss@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> Sent: Wednesday, July 27, 2005 5:29 AM Subject: [bksvol-discuss] Re: Page numbers and headers/footers Debbie In addition to Peter, particularly when a volunteer co-ordinator is in place, this list gives Benetech plenty of input from the users and volunteers of the service. While I realize you are a fan of formal comittees, I, as a user, much prefer the current form of input as it is both direct and doesn't add another layer of bureaucracy. If Benetech itself were bureaucratic with hundreds of execs and the like, it might make sense. And, if there is a committee, why is that committee going to represent a good cross section of views as committees tend either to reflect the views of the reps themselves or their parent organizations rather than the everyday users and volunteers. Benetech and BookShare's major problem these days is a lack of staff to implement its activities which is a result of the real world difficulty of procuring sizable donations and grants. As can be seen by this discussion of the stripper, there truly isn't much of a consensus as to what users prefer; so a committee, if it truly represented users, would have the same result. About all we know is that folks don't particularly like the stripper (they seem to agree about that); and as there is no consensus, perhaps the optimum solution, if technologically possible, is to allow users the ability to control stripping. And one doesn't need a committee to figure that out nor there infrequent meetings to formalize things which might slow down things even more.