In message , at 13:05:51 on Fri,
18 Nov 2005, M. J. Powell remarked:
What, I hear you ask, would I have done before the days of mobile
phones? I've had one since 1988, so we are going back a fair way, but
the answer is that I employed a fulltime secretary to organise such
things for me when I was otherwise uncontactable, and whose job it was
to make sure that when I went out she knew the landline numbers of
everywhere I was likely to be (and the names of the secretaries of all
the people I was visiting).

In the days before mobile phones I travelled all over Wales and the
West Country organising OBs. I managed perfectly well with telephone
boxes and hotel phones. And those were the days when phone boxes were
regularly vandalised.

I managed too, but with support (as I described) and the level of demand
from outside the organisation was lower, too. What's increased over the
years is people's expectations.

A trivial example: I've replied to your posting within half an hour of
it propagating. In those days you'd have been lucky to have email at
all, or expect a response in less than a few days.

--
Roland Perry