looking for a way to get to know new board members more

ewein, I've only been on this Board since January -- relatively speaking, a short time. I suffered adjustment difficulties (in retrospect, very minor ones) - I even tried to change the Yet Another Rehashed Thread terminology (hey guys, what happened to Read About This At?) which was an obvious (ha ha) flop! Yes, there are "in jokes" here, and things that you won't understand about what's going on because of tenure. The best way I've learnt about people is by observing what goes on here - and for the most part, I like what I see.

I consider myself a relatively 'new' person, but I would hate to be segregated, because some of the people I now consider 'friends' here are those old pharts (hee hee ... I'm only game to use this word because one of them used it the other day).

It's not possible to have an environment where you prevent the ongoing relationships... I know, I worked with someone who tried once and it backfired. My friend and I had known each other for 8 years, and ended up working together. This woman tried to make my friend and I stop talking about the things we had in common, which was almost impossible since we had so many mutual friends / experiences. Our response was to withdraw from social interaction with this woman because we were trying to protect the friendship we had. Sorry that I seem to be telling stories here, but my point is that it's difficult to force group interaction in a way it doesn't want to go. It's not possible to stop the "oldies" (sorry y'all ... don't have time to come up with a better terminology) having their inside jokes. At the same time, the "oldies" aren't *trying* to exclude people, they are just going on with their normal way of doing things.

No one wants this place to be exclusive -- we'd all get bored after a while if there wasn't new input.

It's great to have new input. Hopefully, one day you'll be an "oldie" too!