RE: the liaison between or the liaison among??

["Hemstreet, Deborah" <DHemstreet -at- kaydon -dot- com>]

 Hi Peter,

Well, the dictionary definition of liaison is: "A channel for
communication between groups".

What it amounts to is this - for a particular process, no one is allowed
to do anything without input from X Dept. If X Dept. does not provide
that input, the process stops. Depts. A and B can communicate with each
other, but if X Dept. has not communicated on this particular process to
Dept. A and B and C, then neither, A, B, nor C is allowed to proceed,
even if they are communicating with each other.

Does that make sense?

Deborah

-----Original Message-----
From: Peter Neilson [mailto:neilson -at- windstream -dot- net] 
Sent: Thursday, October 16, 2008 10:28 AM
To: Hemstreet, Deborah
Cc: TECHWR-L
Subject: Re: the liaison between or the liaison among??

Hemstreet, Deborah wrote:
> Should I write: 
>  
> The X Dept. serves as the liaison between a, b, c, and d.
> OR
> The X Dept. serves as the liaison among a, b, c, and d.

First of all, it probably doesn't. More likely it gets in the way, or at

least introduces noise. (We know from your previous writings that the 
place has room for improvement. But then so does everything, even you 
and me.)

Secondly, when faced with a choice like that, you probably need a 
different statement. You could turn it inside out, something like this: 
"A, B, C and D use the X Dept not only to make coffee and to shake the 
toner in the laser printer, but also to resolve conflicts that may arise

between any of those departments."



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