Others, including John L. Thornton, a member of the executive committee, spoke with equal determination against any public sale of shares, people there said. The prime fear was that a public company could never replicate the close-knit culture of a partnership, where financial rewards are measured in lifetimes instead of months.

In the end, no formal vote was taken. The partners were given a questionnaire in which they were asked to state their views on a public offering and several other issues, each requiring a written answer. Partners left the meeting Saturday afternoon without knowing the results of that poll. Reviewing the comments was left up to the executive committee, which met Sunday and continued discussion over dinner Sunday night.

At the weekend retreat, Goldman executives presented several ways of valuing the company, and their estimates covered a wide range of $15 billion to $35 billion, people who attended said. The firm has not yet developed a detailed plan for going public and would not put a price tag on the firm until they do.

Some analysts expect that the firm is likely to value itself between $25 billion and $30 billion, considered a rich but not implausible figure given the way the market values other securities companies. But some bankers argue with that figure and say that Goldman, given its reliance on some outside investment capital as well as partners' capital, would have to settle for less, perhaps $20 billion to $25 billion.

How the firm spreads that wealth is likely to be a matter of discussion in the weeks ahead. But several people within the firm expect that with a possible valuation of $30 billion, existing partners will take between $20 billion to $22 billion, or an average of $105 million to $115 million apiece. Goldman's 6,000 nonpartner executives would split between $6 billion and $8 billion, this person said. The rest would be reserved for the firm's outside investors and limited partners.

Several at Goldman have stressed that the plan to go public is not only about how to stuff the already bulging wallets of top executives. It is also about how to prepare the firm for a new era -- one in which only the most global banks with the resources to fight for business in any major economy will prosper. Increasingly, these people say, Goldman's private partnership is a handicap in that race.

In particular, a partnership cannot compete with public companies in the acquisitions game because it does not have stock, which is often a much cheaper way of acquiring other companies than cash. For that reason Goldman has tended to grow organically or to make only small purchases while some of its rivals have entered giant mergers or made multibillion dollar purchases to expand their business.