Hi all,

Tomorrow night's meeting will be the "special meeting to consider legal representation"  - this will be the only item on the agenda. The meeting will have a different shape from our regular meeting. Gay, Jan, Frances and I take responsibility for the conduct of the meeting, since we proposed it.

We will begin with time to listen to each other as we respond to the questions:

"What are the issues that are important to you as you consider this decision?
What are the factors and concerns that inform this for you?"

This is a time for listening carefully and respectfully, without interruption or response or asides.

When everyone has had an opportunity to address these questions (if they wish to do so), Gay will summarise what has been said.

We then move to discussion, seeking to reach consensus about the way forward. The questions to consider at this time will be "what have you heard that would help us reach consensus?"

Out of this time we will formulate a minute on which we will make a decision using the cards.

We do not expect that this will be a brief meeting. But we also believe that it is time we made a decision on these matters. We will do our very best to ensure that we come to that point tomorrow night.

Attached is a document in which I have brought together the responses we have received from the lawyers to whom we have addressed questions. Please take the time to read this through before you come to the meeting, so that we can proceed on the basis of shared knowledge - we all know that this is what we all know.

Thank you to the 'red card' people who have sent through their reasons, as requested. If others wish to do so, please do.

At the end of this, we also need to think about what has happened over the past couple of months, and what we need to learn from this, so that the next time we face an issue on which we are divided, we have improved our processes in the light of this experience.

Please come with a quiet mind tomorrow, and open ears, ready to listen to one another. There is an injunction I know which is a good piece of guidance- 'be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to anger'.

Go well - see you tomorrow!

Anne