NN Panels -- What's up with that?

Josh Orton paid me a courteous and very much  appreciated  compliment yesterday, did you see it?  It was along the lines that since my departure from NN, the organizers are working hard to fill my shoes.  This was in the context of explaining the communication problems and delay in announcing NN panels.

And in return, I doff my hat, bow low, and drag the feather across the ground in his direction.  My compliments to him for his hard work and resilience.    Though I usually lap up this kind of thing like the kids' melted ice cream, I am troubled a bit by the reference to me in all of this kerfluffle.  It's this:

You might have been left with the impression that my leaving NN -- at the end of MARCH -- is somewhat to blame for the delay in communications to people about the panels they proposed.  Believe me, it was not.

My suggestion was that proposals, which NN requested by the end of January would be judged in early February (we even had a staff retreat to work on this) and that NN would issue answers shortly after that (by mid-February).   And I did send out a small number of "thank you, yes" and "I'm sorry, no" answer in accordance with that schedule.  But then I was told to stop.

The "stop work" order was still in effect when I left in mid- March.

But now, in early May, the "go ahead" seems to have seeped out.     Believe me, if I were still on the staff, it would be exactly the same state of affairs.  My departure is not a factor in this at all.