Scheduled any advisory committee meetings lately? They never seem to have the right timing. Getting everyone together can be a real challenge at times. Tonight, we had our scheduled meetings from 6 P.M to 7 P.M. Attendance and participation were low as compared to our last meeting. Looking back over the last several years, we have never really had consistency in total team participation.
Our group arrived at the conclusion that we need to remain proactive in building stronger communication channels within our advisory teams. If we can’t get them to meetings, then we can at least have dialog with the team wherever they are located. Technology allows this process to take place any time and anywhere.
One of the proactive steps we implemented during this meeting was initiating a conference call with one of our major corporations in New York. This appeared to be a fairly successful process, so we plan to be innovative, set-up and test conference calls periodically with all our advisory team members before our next semi- annual meetings.
We have innovation at our finger tips, so why not use it. It appears to work well in the private sector and in major organizations. The conference call has become a way of life. Every6ne is on the run and use conference calling in one form or another. We also realized that a number of our committee members drive across the city during peak traffic for a one hour lunch/dinner then return to work or home. Could we improve everyone’s time management through effective planning? We think the answer is yes. So we plan to put it to the test .before school ends. We have about 10 committee / teachers on the advisory team. We may test 5 to 7. We will let you know how it turns out.
All of the high schools in our county now have what are called "Distance Learning Labs," which is basically a fancy term for video conferencing equipment. Our county also likes to schedule meetings for 3:00 in the afternoon in downtown Atlanta at the main office. As you can imagine, attendance is poor, and some people never come.
ReplyDeleteOver the past couple of months, the county has started taking advantage of the DL equipment and has been using it for the regularly scheduled meetings. For the most part it's been a big success. "Attendance" is up because teachers and administrators don't have to spend two hours in traffic for a one hour meeting.
While there certainly are times when a face-to-face meeting is preferable, it also makes sense to use the technology that has been provided to you.