MSI Meeting Particulars

[hillbilly grandpa]

I believe there is an MSI membership meeting tomorrow, Saturday. If so the meeting isn't listed on the calendar on the MSI website.

Can someone give me some particulars? (And point me to the info on the MSI website in case my cataracts have suddenly worsened?)

 

[Mightydog]

Here’s the email I received. Sorry I couldn’t imbed it.

 

[Uncle Duke]

I received the above email from MSI on January 27th, with a 2nd reminder email today.

I don't see it on the calendar either. But wondering, is it possible that your membership has inadvertantly lapsed?

 

[JohnnyE]

Maryland Shall Issue president Mark Pennak just spoke with members of the Rockville chapter of the Izaak Walton League a short while ago (Friday 2/2/24) at the chapter's monthly meeting. He knocked the cover off the ball! We talked for an hour, it was a dialogue, not speech, then he spent another 30 minutes with a few of us outside the chapter house getting into some real nitty-gritty.

Mark is amazing due to his experience, command of the facts and law, and ability to think on his feet. If you are not a member of Maryland Shall Issue, why not? Mark takes no salary, it's all pro bono, and he notches victories in the courts. Basic membership is a mere $25 per year. That's barely the price of a box of ammo, but it helps with MSI's out-of-pocket costs. What's preserving our 2A worth...it's priceless!

Go to marylandshallissue.org and join, NOW!

 

[Boondock Saint]

I sincerely wish MSI was more active on this forum.

 

[Art3]

I sincerely wish MSI was more active on this forum.

I wish that MDS was more active with MSI. Heck, I wish more MDS members would just join to give MSI the numbers even if they didn't want to actively do anything. 33,024 MDS members vs. approx 3,800 MSI members. That's better than 10%, but still pretty sad.

The fact that the President of MSI interacts on this forum himself is commendable. While we are all allegedly on the same side, some officers have been rubbed the wrong way by MDS members and reduced their involvement. Also, who is MSI? WE are MSI

More than anything right now though, I wish that we hadn't spent the last 5 hours in exasperation trying to get the equipment playing nicely together so that the meeting can be streamed with audio tomorrow later today.

 

[linkstate]

I’m just a regular member. But at the very least, drop a few bucks or more in the MSI jar when you go to a gun show.

Hell, when VA was under attacks a few years back (they still are), I dropped a few bucks in the VDL jar at Chantilly. We’re all in this together.

 

[swinokur]

Become active in MSI. Then you will have firsthand knowledge and can interact with more members here

 

[Art3]

So the meeting is on and seems to be working on zoom...as best I can tell.

Is anyone watching on zoom? Is it ok?

It has been a struggle to get here.

 

[Bob A]

I sincerely wish MSI was more active on this forum.

I wish that MDS was more active with MSI. Heck, I wish more MDS members would just join to give MSI the numbers even if they didn't want to actively do anything. 33,024 MDS members vs. approx 3,800 MSI members. That's better than 10%, but still pretty sad.

There's an MSI Forum on this site that sees zero use. MSI's webpage has some good stuff, but you have to actively seek it out and dig thru it.

If MSI would post up in their dedicated forum here, perhaps more people would expand their awareness of the organisation and its mission and its successes.

Even minutes of meetings and news of their elections would be a plus.
Anything to have an increased presence on MDS would reap rewards, I'm sure.

A scant 11% of MDS registered members have joined MSI. That's pretty pathetic, and even worse, it's taken years to get that high.

 

[Uncle Duke]

So the meeting is on and seems to be working on zoom...as best I can tell.

Is anyone watching on zoom? Is it ok?

It has been a struggle to get here.

Art, in all honesty, I thought the audio was a little tinny. That may have been the acoustics of the room itself. It may also be that I attended via my phone, which likely isn't going to deliver the best audio to begin with. But that said, whatever you guys did, and without knowing what you're encountering on your end? I will also say that it was light years worth of improvement over the last MSI Zoom meeting that I recall. I had a hard time following that one. MUCH better this time around. So a big "thumbs up" from my perspective!

Thank You to all of you guys (and gals) for what you're doing!

 

[Art3]

Art, in all honesty, I thought the audio was a little tinny. That may have been the acoustics of the room itself. It may also be that I attended via my phone, which likely isn't going to deliver the best audio to begin with. But that said, whatever you guys did, and without knowing what you're encountering on your end? I will also say that it was light years worth of improvement over the last MSI Zoom meeting that I recall. I had a hard time following that one. MUCH better this time around. So a big "thumbs up" from my perspective!

Thank You to all of you guys (and gals) for what you're doing!

Thank you. At this point, I was happy just to have audio that was able to stream. Was the volume ok? That's often a challenge as Mark just doesn't like being close to the mic.

In the last year or so, MSI lost their Audio/Video/Tech person (he's alive and well, it's just life intervenes and he couldn't give the 150% he had been any more...I get it and there are certainly no hard feelings). Katie and I came into a pile of equipment (in various states of functionality), with very little knowledge of how to make it work. We've upgrade a few items and are learning. I really think (hope!) we are right on the cusp of having it sorted out enough to be confident that it will all work...relatively smoothly, even.

The last meeting at AGC was our first with the equipment, and a real challenge. There were some equipment issues (that I believe we have resolved well enough, now), but the biggest problem seemed to be that the wifi at AGC just wasn't fast enough to get the signal out reliably.

Our intent is to soon (while it is still fresh in our minds) go through the hardware and software to get it streamlined and sorted out reliably for next time. Hopefully, we'll have it all together enough to be able to worry about sound quality...and not just begging for any sound at all

 

[Uncle Duke]

Thank you. At this point, I was happy just to have audio that was able to stream. Was the volume ok? That's often a challenge as Mark just doesn't like being close to the mic.

In the last year or so, MSI lost their Audio/Video/Tech person (he's alive and well, it's just life intervenes and he couldn't give the 150% he had been any more...I get it and there are certainly no hard feelings). Katie and I came into a pile of equipment (in various states of functionality), with very little knowledge of how to make it work. We've upgrade a few items and are learning. I really think (hope!) we are right on the cusp of having it sorted out enough to be confident that it will all work...relatively smoothly, even.

The last meeting at AGC was our first with the equipment, and a real challenge. There were some equipment issues (that I believe we have resolved well enough, now), but the biggest problem seemed to be that the wifi at AGC just wasn't fast enough to get the signal out reliably.

Our intent is to soon (while it is still fresh in our minds) go through the hardware and software to get it streamlined and sorted out reliably for next time. Hopefully, we'll have it all together enough to be able to worry about sound quality...and not just begging for any sound at all

Mark's volume was fine. Entirely audible. Katie's was less so, but as she was seated closest to Mark, and the only woman on the panel, I could distinguish her as well. The other questions and statements were sometimes discernable, but sometimes not. Like they were being asked off mic. I could sometimes discern the question asked, and sometimes not. But what I typically couldn't do at all, was to discern if the questions were coming from the audience off camera? Or had they been sent to the panel via Zoom, and were being read aloud by a member of the seated panel other than Katie? Or both. No reply necessary....just an FYI from my side of the broadcast.

Note also that with Mark, he always preceded his replies by repeating the questions that he had been asked. Always a good practice, and that may be typical of Mark's public speaking delivery. Note however that if Mark's method of repeating the question was by design for today? As in, you folks had anticipated this question and answer portion that I attempt to describe as being a possible problem today? The result was that the audio question and answer shortcoming was greatly mitigated by Mark from what it would have otherwise been. In either event, his "question first, then reply" delivery worked well today, especially given sometimes inaudible questions.

In sum, this meeting was far better than the AGC meeting. You jogged my memory, as it was indeed the AGC meeting that I remember as being really difficult to follow. Today's meeting was far superior to AGC. Truly no comparison! Whatever you've been doing since AGC is indeed directionally correct!

Any.other questions, don't hesitate. Thanks again to all of you good folks!

 

[Bob A]

Prefacing answers to questions from the floor with a repetition of the question is an excellent strategy, since the original questioner is not miked. Some speakers, even at the microphone, are very soft-spoken, I've noticed.

If these meetings are recorded, providing access to the sound portion (at least) on the MSI website, or even MDS, would be a boon. Even more useful would be a written summary, or even transcript, of the meeting's pertinent points.

Posting this information on a public site like MDS would help spread the word of MSI's actions, keep the community in the loop, and encourage increased participation in the process of recovering and retaining our 2A rights. As it is now, no one outside the immediate circle knows what has been presented, or what MSI intends to do going forward.

Of course, if there's proprietary content, that could easily be left out of a transcript.

I'm told that there exists programs that turn speech into written words; that would be helpful to anyone preparing a transcript, thou a bit of editing would doubtless be necessary.

. . . just a few thoughts from someone unable to attend the meetings.

 

[Stoveman]

I'm a simple guy, I would just like Mark to pronounce Bruen correctly.

 

[Bertfish]

The meetings are not recorded

 

[Phoenix_1295]

I'm a simple guy, I would just like Mark to pronounce Bruen correctly.

 

[rambling_one]

I wish that MDS was more active with MSI. Heck, I wish more MDS members would just join to give MSI the numbers even if they didn't want to actively do anything. 33,024 MDS members vs. approx 3,800 MSI members. That's better than 10%, but still pretty sad.

The fact that the President of MSI interacts on this forum himself is commendable. While we are all allegedly on the same side, some officers have been rubbed the wrong way by MDS members and reduced their involvement. Also, who is MSI? WE are MSI

More than anything right now though, I wish that we hadn't spent the last 5 hours in exasperation trying to get the equipment playing nicely together so that the meeting can be streamed with audio tomorrow later today.

Agree...makes one wonder for sure.

 

[Applehd]

I was very disappointed to hear those numbers. 30k+ MDS members and 3800 MSI... shameful.

 

[Art3]

Mark's volume was fine. Entirely audible. Katie's was less so, but as she was seated closest to Mark, and the only woman on the panel, I could distinguish her as well. The other questions and statements were sometimes discernable, but sometimes not. Like they were being asked off mic. I could sometimes discern the question asked, and sometimes not. But what I typically couldn't do at all, was to discern if the questions were coming from the audience off camera? Or had they been sent to the panel via Zoom, and were being read aloud by a member of the seated panel other than Katie? Or both. No reply necessary....just an FYI from my side of the broadcast.

Note also that with Mark, he always preceded his replies by repeating the questions that he had been asked. Always a good practice, and that may be typical of Mark's public speaking delivery. Note however that if Mark's method of repeating the question was by design for today? As in, you folks had anticipated this question and answer portion that I attempt to describe as being a possible problem today? The result was that the audio question and answer shortcoming was greatly mitigated by Mark from what it would have otherwise been. In either event, his "question first, then reply" delivery worked well today, especially given sometimes inaudible questions.

In sum, this meeting was far better than the AGC meeting. You jogged my memory, as it was indeed the AGC meeting that I remember as being really difficult to follow. Today's meeting was far superior to AGC. Truly no comparison! Whatever you've been doing since AGC is indeed directionally correct!

Any.other questions, don't hesitate. Thanks again to all of you good folks!

I really appreciate the feedback (no pun intended...get it? audio..."feedback" ). I would periodically step out into the hallway and log into Zoom to see how it sounded. As far as I could tell it was good...but I could still faintly hear it live in the background, so I wasn't sure. It is very helpful to hear from a true remote user that it was ok.

There was only one mic being used, the one directly in front of Mark. So, if you heard anything from Katie or the audience, that was a surprise. I THINK with minor additions to the hardware we already have, we could have a mic for Mark, Katie/panel, and the audience next time. Unless leadership tells me otherwise, I'm going to try that next time.

We didn't know any of the questions beforehand (although some could certainly be guessed ). Mark was repeating them because he figured no one could hear them (or at least, no one on Zoom).

We peaked at 111 Zoom attendees. Off the top of my head, I'd guess we had about 30 or so in person...certainly not 100. So, it seems Zoom is an important tool for MSI, and worth the effort of making it work.

Hopefully continued A/V success in the next meetings will wipe away the regrettable memories of that last one at AGC . Unfortunately, AGC is a pretty good location as it is fairly centrally located, I THINK free for use to use, and it's where we store a lot of the equipment. I was privy to a behind the scenes conversation of a possible way to get around the AGC bandwidth issue...but it's just theoretical now and I don't want to jinx anything.