Andrew Ference is cautiously optimistic that these productive meetings will lead to an agreement in short order. Ference believes that the summer predictions from many of the hopeful club officials who said that training camp would start around Thanksgiving could prove true as long as the meetings keep going. "I don't think anyone's outright optimistic. I think it's always cautious," said Ference. "But I think any time you can see good solid meetings with a lot discussed and not a lot a hoopla press conferences afterward I think it's a positive thing. That's the nicest thing from my perspective, that we can actually talk like partners instead of trying to convince everybody else about what a great job you did in the boardroom."