Last Independent Affiliate Thoughts for the Week

Hello Dear Readers. This is going to be a short IA post because I'm heading out to St. Louis to see Barack Obama at St. Louis Union Station.

I printed out Linda Laskowski's IA post so I could read it and think on it. If you haven't read her post just follow this link http://pcdtrustee.blogspot.com/.

I continue to be stuck at this:
The easiest thing for us would be to react to whatever came before it, continuing a system by which Affiliates were actually encouraged to remain separate (more workshop slots, more opportunities for exposure), even though they may have had few resources and would have benefited from collaborating.

Why am I stuck? Mainly, dear readers, because more questions keep coming to my mind.
Question 1: How did the past rules regarding IAs encourage them to remain separate?
Question 2: Hasn't the General Assembly Planning Committee always had the authority to set the number of workshops that any organization gets? Or did the Board set that and the Planning Committee just implement and enforce it?
Question 3: "More opportunities for exposure"? Is there something wrong with IAs getting as many opportunities for exposure as they can?
Question 4: "few resources". What kind of resources are you talking about? Money? Or something else?
Question 5: Weren't many of these IAs collaborating already?
Question 6: What benefits of collaboration does the Board think the IAs were missing from their supposed non-collaboration?

That's it for today, dear readers, talk amongst yourselves. You can also read my first and second posts on the IA issue; "Opposite Side of the Street Parking" and "You're Breaking My Heart".