Ann Macfarlane
This post offers our readers a brilliant paper by municipal attorney Brett Vinson on the dangers of public comment. Anyone involved in receiving comment from the public during meetings will find it interesting and valuable. Read about the Nazi salute in Santa Cruz, singing a Whitney Houston song to express love for a councilmember, and…
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Guest post by Bob Jean, ICMA/WMCA Senior Advisor Got a really hot issue and a divided community? Too often, if you hold a traditional public hearing to deal with it, you run the risk that each side will simply line up and use their three minutes to tell the Council how terrible they are no…
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The simplest way to make board meetings more efficient is to use the Round Robin Method of discussion. In a round robin, each member of the body is given an opportunity to speak once before anyone may speak a second time, commonly by calling on the members around the table in turn. Sometimes, however, it’s…
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In 1975, my late husband Lew Macfarlane spent months in Tanzania working to free Stanford students who had been kidnapped by rebel forces.
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This week I had the pleasure of presenting Jurassic Parliament to Kate Plesha’s student government class at Roosevelt High School.
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Guest post by Craig Freshley. We are big fans of Craig’s wisdom and are delighted to share this post with our readers. Visit Craig’s website for more superb tips on meetings and leadership. In principle, decisions without enforcement grow weak and eventually wither. When rules or policies are not enforced it causes confusion, resentment, and…
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At a recent nonprofit board conference, I asked participants how they discuss and decide their issues. The majority of the attendees at my session agreed that they use “informal consensus.” Download PDF What is informal consensus? Here is a description of informal consensus from Andy Robinson’s book, Great Boards for Small Groups: Someone presents an…
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This list of school board president role and responsibilities was presented by former Board President John Burton and Superintendent Sam Jarman of the Alpine School District at a workshop organized by the Utah School Boards Association.
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The City of Olympia has given us permission to share this quick-guide poster, which you may adapt for your own meetings.
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Update on June 4, 2020 – Things have changed this spring because of the COVID-19 crisis. Some states have amended their laws or issued emergency orders changing their rules on remote meetings and email voting. This guidance may no longer apply. Check with your attorney before deciding what to do. It is fine for board…
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