The patient arrived at the board meeting before the connection to the coast worked.
Tessa could hear his voice through the room’s telephone while the screen remained dark. He asked whether he was sitting where people would trip over his bag. Someone moved a chair. The advocate read back his recording permission, and the secretary confirmed that the promotional release on the ordinary form did not apply.
Only then did the image appear.
The board occupied a long table in a room whose windows were higher than the seated members’ heads. The patient and advocate sat at one end. A staff representative had joined in person; another worker’s written account was included under the bounded permission she had given. Tessa sat at the coastal office with Juno beside her and the contingency budget open between them.
Eli and Kellan waited behind the camera’s field. They were available to answer about expedition costs and work arrangements. The meeting was not a performance by the whole team in defense of itself.
The chair began by distinguishing the current paid commitments from the renewal under review. No one proposed canceling an appointment already covered in the present period. The vote would concern limited continued clinic assistance, the linked research allocation and conditions on supported future field activity.
