I have to meet with a group of people later this week.  I'm not looking forward to the meeting because past experience with this group has not been very good.  Years ago, the Department had one brief but positive encounter with these people.  After that, we never really heard from them again. When we tried to communicate with them, they were polite but not helpful.  Then, earlier this year, we had one very negative encounter with them.  Now, they asked want to touch base to see how we can establish relations.  There's a part of me that wants to be very snide and sarcastic, but, that would be counterproductive.  I'll go through the meeting, of course, and I will behave myself.  I wonder what they have to offer.