BREDS has just informed me they will be holding a BREDS general meeting on September 22 at 5:00 p.m. at the Sandy Bank School.

Just confirming the BREDS general meeting will be held tomorrow at 5:00 p.m. at the Sandy Bank School.

Diana, will you or a representative from JET be present at that meeting tomorrow?

To environmentalist: I had considered coming to the BREDS meeting if invited by either BREDS or the community, but did not want to just show up. It's five hours driving for me, so I think I would need more of a sense from the community or BREDS that my attendance is wanted. I've seen the many postings over the months from folks who wanted information from BREDS, particularly on the sports park and hope that there will be people at the meeting to raise these issues. I note that a Director has posted the intention of BREDS to open and improve lines of communication, so I think that is hopeful. I think on balance I will not come to the meeting tomorrow, but both BREDS and the community can think about whether involving me in meetings in future would be beneficial. Diana from JET

Diana, you SHOULD be there. We need someone who is objective and is on the side of the environment.

Miss McCawlay, you have made numerous trips to Treasure Beach in an attempt to assist the people of Treasure Beach. None of these trips was convenient or easy for you. For this, the community owes you a world of thanks.

As BREDS is the organization that originally invited you to Treasure Beach, why would they possibly object to you attending the meeting this evening? My guess is they inadvertently FORGOT to ask you to come to this quarterly meeting. I believe they SHOULD have sent you a personal invitation to attend, but I would not stay away due to their oversight. Yes, a five hour round trip drive means extending yourself to an extraordinary degree; it is possible BREDS might let you have five or ten minutes to speak to the directors and the attendees at an sufficiently early time in the program to assure there will be enough of an audience to make the trip worth your while. This could be done in “exchange” for the great inconvenience of driving back and forth from Kingston. You are a VERY valued resource to the people of Treasure Beach.

In addition, the people of Treasure Beach most certainly welcomed your intervention on the very serious canal issue. It would seem less than mannerly for them not to want you to continue to come back to Treasure Beach to help them deal with other important environmental issues.

In the future, if organizations are holding a gathering at which Miss McCawlay’s presence would be helpful, I suggest she be issued an invitation far enough in advance for her to be able to consider attending. She is a professional, has a very busy schedule, and she should not have to read message boards to learn of possible places where she might be able to do some good. Please extend her the courtesies to which she is entitled, and please treat her as a professional.

All the above is evidence that someone at BREDS - and maybe that person is Mr. Batchelor - needs to be communicating on a regular and timely basis with the community (including the many readers of TB.net) and with people such as Miss McCawlay.

Please attend the meeting if you can, Miss McCaulay. Your voice has been a welcome, knowledgeable forthright one in these conversations, and we will all benefit from your continued involvement with TB.

If it was my meeting I would have taken the time to invite Miss McCawlay. Sure she can show up just like anyone else because it's an open meeting, but I feel it would have been much more courteous to invite her.