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Chapter 18: the Rilly, Rilly, Rilly Big Meeting
November 15th, 1994
They had never had a meeting this big before. Art knew because they had to pull extra chairs out of the storage closet to make seats. Everybody from the usual big meetings was there?as well as Newman from the head office and his secretary. Some of the guys from legal were here too with a few from the communications department, unseen since they moved to San Francisco. It was really, really big.
This made most people nervous. Was it good news? Was it bad news? How could a meeting get so big without people having any idea of what it was about?
Will cleared his throat but it was unnecessary as everybody in the room was already haunted by silent anticipation. He had discussed the subject of this meeting before with Newman. Newman had offered to break the news himself, 'to pull the wrath in his direction'. Newman said he didn't care if the staff didn't like him. He was used to making hard decisions. But Will had to do it himself. He was the ranchman, their caretaker. And it wasn't necessarily bad news?just BIG news. Anyway, he didn't want it to look like the decision was coming from the new head office. It was coming from him.
"We're selling SupraNet to USACoolConnect!," Will stated matter of factly. The room was all dropped jaws and blank stares.
"The reason we're selling to them," Will continued, "is because they already have a large stake in the on-line chat and networking business and, mostly, they agreed not to dismantle SupraNet if we sold it to them. They will just own and run it now. They offered 150 million for the backbone and everything?which puts us just under breaking even on the whole project."
Henry looked over at Will?and then at Newman. They were selling SupraNet? He was convinced that this meeting was going to be about pay cuts. A meeting this big? How could it not involve pay cuts? Instead, head office had axed that cancer, lanced its spreading disease into oblivion. Maybe Newman wasn't so bad after all?
There was general muttering around the room. A lot of wows. A few nods of agreement. A few people who agreed but lamented the loss. Others said they were sorry it never worked out?and that it was good that we got away as clean as we did. But the general consensus, much to Will's relief, seemed to be agreement with the decision.
And then came the questions. Oh the questions! SupraNet was such a huge part of Madre. It would affect everything. And the questions lasted from that 10am meeting well until 3pm. Newman had foreseen this and ordered a caterer all the way up from San Francisco to handle lunch. Will thought this a little extravagant, but was at a loss for an alternative food supplier. No one in Berney catered.
The work day was a loss really. After people came out of the meeting, the thick black moats of tiredness were obvious under their eyes. In those moats floated the crocodiles of surprise, reluctance, change, and finally, understanding. As people crowded out of the meeting room, put away the extra chairs and went home, Will stayed at the table and recapped the meeting with Newman. "I think that went pretty well," he said.
"You've got a good team," said Newman. "It's a big change. SupraNet was a key part of this company for the last four years."
"Yeah. I think it was the right thing to do." Will picked at one of the left-over sandwiches. But he was glad to have that over with. He wanted to get home, have a shower and hang out with his wife and children. Today was the end of an era for Madre. There was no dead weight about their feet anymore. After so many days of rainy travel, tomorrow they'd break through the mist, like golden rays of the sun, into the waving wheat of a new pasture.
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