Dave-So There are a couple of other things they would need to consider. Even if it was worth it to have somebody speak for them in an established chat or interview framework, that person would also have to read the forums in addition to relying on the queries and concerns which come into the mailbox. That takes a lot of time. Communication through a liason should go both ways. To use the navigation analogy again, there are always currents underneath, water changing color, drift gathering in clusters... a lot of pattern recognition would be going on. An employee would have better access to information and would be trusted to be discreet with it. A member of the community at large might have more perspective and time. Jim, That's a good point about posting the transcripts. That way there would be some quantitative way to see how information is flowing, whether all points eventually get covered, whether questions have already been answered, and how long it takes before a point is adaquately addressed. Somethimes we humans get pretty emotional. Having data ought to help all around. Even if the "fireside chat" was unofficial it would need to accomplish something and that something ought to be measurable in more than good will. Quixote, There are enough of us reasonable people around. A designated chat might not be the perfect environment, but by looking at the building blocks and fitting them together in a few ways we can make suggestions for setting something like this up. If the feedback from the community indicates some priorities that may help define what shape something like this ought to take. Chat is more personal, but even in that instance I would want the first message from the Liason to be something like a typical interview post of questions and responses... and then people could add remarks and other questions and the conversation would evolve. Moderated chats over in Compuserve (where I'm a sysop) often work like that. This helps keep things on track (I appreciate chaos theory... but not when 20 people are typing at the same time). Carolly