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+<meta name="GENERATOR" content="Microsoft FrontPage 5.0">
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+<title>C++ Committee Meetings</title>
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+<h1>C++ Committee Meeting FAQ for Boost Members</h1>
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+<p><b>Who can attend C++ Committee meetings?</b> Members of
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+J16 (the INCITS/ANSI committee) or of a WG21 (ISO) member country committee
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+("national body" in
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+ISO-speak). <a href="http://www.ncits.org/">
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+INCITS</a> has broadened J16 membership requirements so anyone can
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+join, regardless of nationality or employer.</p>
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+<p>In addition, a small number of "technical experts" who are not committee
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+members can also attend meetings. The "technical expert" umbrella is broad enough to cover
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+the
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+Boost members who attend meetings.</p>
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+<p><b>When and where is the next meeting?</b> See a general
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+<a href="http://std.dkuug.dk/jtc1/sc22/wg21/docs/meetings">list of locations and
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+dates</a>. Detailed information about a particular meeting, including hotel
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+information, is usually provided in a paper appearing in the <a href="#Mailing">
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+pre- or post-meeting mailing</a> for the prior meeting. You will have to go to
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+the committee's <a href="http://std.dkuug.dk/jtc1/sc22/wg21/docs/papers/">Papers
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+web page</a> and search a bit.</p>
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+<p><b>Is there a fee for attending meetings?</b> No, but there can be a lot of
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+incidental expenses like travel, lodging, and meals, and there is a $US 800 a
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+year INCITS fee to become a voting member.</p>
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+<p><b>What is the schedule?</b> The meetings start at 9:00AM on
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+Monday, and 8:30AM other days, unless otherwise announced. It is best to arrive
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+a half-hour early to grab a good seat, some coffee, tea, or donuts, and to say
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+hello to people. (There is also a Sunday evening a WG21 administrative meeting,
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+which is closed except to delegates from national bodies.)</p>
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+<p>The Friday meeting is generally over by 11:00AM. Because the Friday
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+meeting is for formal votes only, it is primarily of interest only to committee
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+members.</p>
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+<p>Sometimes there are evening technical sessions; the details aren't
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+usually available until the Monday morning meeting. There may be a
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+reception one evening, and, yes, significant others are
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+invited. Again, details usually become available Monday morning.</p>
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+<p><b>What actually happens at the meetings?</b> Monday morning an hour or two
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+is spent in full committee on administrivia, and then the committee breaks up
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+into working groups (Core, Library, and Enhancements). The full committee also
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+gets together later in the week to hear working group progress reports.</p>
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+<p>The working groups are where most technical activities take place. Each
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+active issue that appears on an issues list is discussed, as are papers from the
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+mailing. Most issues are non-controversial and disposed of in a few minutes.
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+Technical discussions are often led by long-term committee members, often
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+referring to past decisions or longstanding working group practice. Sometimes a
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+controversy erupts. It takes first-time attendees awhile to understand the
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+discussions and how decisions are actually made. The working group chairperson
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+moderates.</p>
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+<p>Sometimes straw polls are taken. In a straw poll anyone attending can vote,
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+in contrast to the formal votes taken by the full committee, where only voting
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+members can vote.</p>
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+<p>Lunch break is an hour and a half. Informal subgroups often lunch
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+together; a lot of technical problems are discussed or actually solved at lunch,
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+or later at dinner. In many ways these discussions involving only a few people
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+are the most interesting. Sometimes during the regular meetings, a working group
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+chair will break off a sub-group to tackle a difficult problem. </p>
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+<p><b>Do I have to stay at the main hotel?</b> No, and committee members on
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+tight budgets often stay at other, cheaper, hotels. (The main hotels are usually
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+chosen because they have large meeting rooms available, and thus tend to be pricey.)
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+The advantage of staying at the main hotel is that it is then easier to
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+participate in the off-line discussions which can be at least as interesting
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+as what actually happens in the scheduled meetings.</p>
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+<p><b>What do people wear at meetings?</b> Programmer casual. No neckties
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+to be seen. </p>
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+<p><b>What should I bring to a meeting?</b> It is very handy to have a laptop
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+computer along. There is normally a little network with Internet connectivity,
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+so bring your Ethernet adapter and a longish cable. There may be 802.11b, but
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+don't bet on it.</p>
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+<p><b>What should I do to prepare for a meeting?</b> It is helpful to have
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+downloaded the mailing or individual papers for the
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+meeting, and read any papers you are interested in. Familiarize yourself with
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+the issues lists if you haven't done so already. Decide which of the working
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+groups you want to attend.</p>
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+<p><b>What is a "<a name="Paper">Paper</a>"?</b> An electronic document containing issues,
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+proposals, or anything else the committee is interested in. Very little gets
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+discussed at a meeting, much less acted upon, unless it is presented in a paper.
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+<a href="http://std.dkuug.dk/jtc1/sc22/wg21/docs/papers/">Papers are available</a>
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+to anyone. Papers don't just appear randomly; they become available four times a
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+year, before and after each meeting. Committee members often refer to a paper by
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+saying what mailing it was in: "See the pre-Redmond mailing."</p>
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+<p><b>What is a "<a name="Mailing">Mailing</a>"?</b> A mailing is the
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+set of papers prepared four times a year before and after each meeting. It
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+is physically just a
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+<a href="http://std.dkuug.dk/jtc1/sc22/wg21/docs/mailings/">.zip or .gz</a>
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+archive of
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+all the papers for a meeting. Although the mailing's archive file itself is only available to committee members and technical
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+experts, the contents (except copies of the standard) are available to the
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+general public as individual papers. The ways of ISO are
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+inscrutable.</p>
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+<p><b>What is a "Reflector"?</b> The committee's mailing lists are
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+called "reflectors". There are a number of them; "all", "core", "lib", and "ext"
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+are the main ones. As a courtesy, Boost technical experts can be added to
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+committee reflectors at the request of a committee member. </p>
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+<hr>
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+<p>© Copyright Beman Dawes, 2002</p>
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+<p>Revised
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+<!--webbot bot="Timestamp" S-Type="EDITED" S-Format="%B %d, %Y" startspan -->September 09, 2002<!--webbot bot="Timestamp" endspan i-checksum="38011" --></p>
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+<p> </p>
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+
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+</body>
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+
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+</html>
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Beman Dawes