... work, but attending the meetings gives you a much better impression of what everybody wants. That then provides the context for interpreting the fuzzier bits of charters and drafts. So that was very useful!
The other big takeaway for me was that I made some kinds of friends along the way, that I didn't quite expect. A lot of the times when you meet people once a year, so much happened between events that context is lost, and you have to reacquaint yourself with the other person and vice...