Buffalo ReformED is an education reform advocacy organization that brings together parents, teachers, business leaders, and community stakeholders and aims to revitalize Buffalo through an improved education system. Buffalo ReformED has developed a report card that they use to evaluate Buffalo Board of Education meetings.
What do you think about this meeting Report Card? Could this Report Card be utilized by other citizen reform organizations to evaluate how well other public bodies are conducting business? What would you add to the Report Card?
I would like to see a report card for every meeting I attend. Too many meetings happen where people end up off task, discussing things that aren’t related. One person commandeers the floor going on endlessly and eveyone is too polite to stop them.
Years in ToastMasters makes me critical of meetings that are poorly organized and go on for hours and accomplish nothing.
I went to work for the Director of Marketing and Merchandising at Epson. She complained about the endless meetings where nothing was accomplished. I told her I would change it. I would pop into a meeting when she had another scheduled and point to my wrist as a show that it was time. She would leave and others would take that opportunity and leave as well. People would walk by me saying Thank YOU! Those meetings I had to attend for her, I would review the agenda. When someone went off task I pointed out that they should probably talk about that offline so we could accomplish what we were here for. I received an excellent review and she shared with me that upper management was thrilled that meetings were more productive and short.
If you can’t have a facilitator, do it yourself. Report cards would make it a group response and take heat off of one person being responsible. In a meeting like Buffalo ReformED it would definitely make for better etiquette and make policymakers responsible to the citizenry.