International IRC Meetings

In order to effectively cover the entire globe, when it gets to the point that sysadmin membership covers all the way around the globe, I propose that IRC meetings will have to take place at three different times in order to ensure the best possible attendance

Splitting the globe roughly into three groups

1/ North and South America
2/ Europe, Africa, Eurasia, Middle East and West of Asia
3/ East Asia and Australasia

Meetings will roughly either be

A/ During the Day
B/ During the Evening
C/ In the middle of the night

depending on which time zone a member is in.

The Proposal to have three meetings at three different times will therefore allow each group to take part in the meeting at a time comfortable for them based on their time zone and will ensure that this is done in a fair manner (see table below)

Time Zone Meeting Time 1 Meeting Time 2 Meeting Time 3
GMT XX:XX YY:YY ZZ:ZZ
Group 1 A B C
Group 2 B C A
Group 3 C A B

It is apparent from the table that…

- Meeting Time 1 will most likely best suit networking between groups 1 and 2.
- Meeting Time 2 will most likely best suit networking between groups 2 and 3.
- Meeting Time 3 will most likely best suit networking between groups 3 and 1.

This as a result, I believe, should adequately allow flow of communication between the entire membership.

These meetings can either take place on the same day, different days during the week or different days during the month, depending on how regularly you wish to run the meeting cycle.

I would suggest meeting times be broadcast as taking in GMT (Greenwich Mean Time) as a neutral time from which members can work out their own individual time based on their time zone and DST off-settings.

Due to DST, the meeting times decided upon may have to be adjusted during different seasons.

Possible meeting times could be between 00:00 – 03:00 GMT, 09:00-12:00 GMT and 20:00 – 23:00 GMT