Connor, your arrogance astounds me. Of course we don't have to turn up for the IRC meetings but there are people who want to be involved in certain aspects of the decision-making process but don't want to have to hang around reading 2 hours worth of rambling in an IRC chat room. Sure people can read the summary and comment upon it but if the decisions have already been made before they can comment on it, how is it that they can possibly help make decisions? I would also say that a summary simply won't do justice to a 2 or 3 hour discussion - you can't possibly reflect all of the opinions shown and I really doubt you'll find anyone willing to make a decent summary.
There are some people who will find it very difficult to fit 2 or 3 hours, 2 or 3 times a month into their lives because they have a lot of stuff to do; these people shouldn't be discriminated against for that reason alone! In fact, I would say that when school starts up again, you'll be lucky to get 2 or 3 members to turn up to one of these IRC discussions!
I don't think the people who turn up to an IRC meeting will be representative of the community at all and for that reason alone I think we should stick to the beauracracy that is the mailing list; at least then everyone has an equal opportunity for their voice to be heard and decisions aren't left completely up to those who have too much time on their hands and sit in the IRC channel all day.