Recording the decision we reversed

Text: an original contemporary committee-speech-style practice extract.

Last month, we voted for a blue background on the festival poster. Last week, we voted for yellow. The minutes record the second decision and leave the first looking like something we prefer to forget. I think the reversal is the part a future committee would most benefit from reading.

We chose blue from samples lying on this table. Then we displayed a full-size version at the end of the hall. From there, several people could not read the dark lettering easily. Yellow was not a sudden collective change of taste. It was an answer to a test we had not performed before the first vote. If the minutes preserve only the final colour, the next committee may repeat the earlier method while believing it is copying our successful decision.

Please add the test and the reason for the change to the record. We need not turn every correction into a confession of incompetence or describe every sentence spoken at a meeting. We should preserve enough of the route to explain the destination. A reversed decision can show that we learned something, provided the record allows anyone to see what it was.

In this extract, the writer tries to persuade an audience to record why a decision was changed.

Evaluate how successfully this is achieved. Support your views with detailed reference to the extract.