It is always interesting to witness the different ways public organizations communicate with each other. At MAG they hold monthly staff meetings with all departments. This includes those from transportation, human services, informational services, administrative staff, communications, and environmental/air quality. Usually, the executive director and senoir planner discuss the current state of affairs at the organization. The budget, coupled with the economy, was a hot topic. However, due to good planning, as well as the type of funding sources MAG receives, it will not be hit as hard.
Also, each division/department sort of gives a rundown of what they have been working on over the course of the month. The human services dept, for instance, talked about the legal assistant study, a couple of grants were are working on, the upcoming homeless count, and the annual press conference.
The executive director, usually honors someone for their excellent work, either recently, or for long-term service to the organization. Additionally, if there are any announcements or upcoming events, they usually are brought up. It is not all so serious though, the executive director will also spice up the meeting with sports picks for upcoming games. Sometimes he will pick on someone's alum, for a big loss, like ASU. lol. At my first meeting, he introduced me to all of staff, and allowed me to talk a little about myself and my background. People are always surprised to hear I am from Texas, asking "where's your accent?"
Furthermore, if there was a big project that a department had completed, they introduce it to entire staff. The communications department did a piece on rubberized asphalt being used on major Valley highways. You may think this might be boring, but I found it sort of interesting. It requires less maintenance, lowers road noise, and lessens the amount of mist from the road while driving when it rains. I sort of digressed there. This is a typical monthly staff meeting and they are a lot of fun, plus we get breakfast.
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Staff meetings are a trip. In a job that I had years ago, I learned how great it is to have a well structured, regular staff meeting. It really helps to disseminate important news as well as get the "pulse" of the organization. Since then I have found it insane how frustrating it is to have staff meetings that are unstructured and tend to wander. It is made exponentially worse as the number of talkers in the group increases.
ReplyDeleteI have to agree, Staff meetings are great.I use to work for large home developer before the market started to hit its lows and we department had weekly meeting that really just helped everyone understand what everyone is doing and to keep everyone on the same page. And now i work in a place where it is rare to have staff meeting and honestly it is such a "hot mess" where i work, it drives me crazy. I miss the structure, even with my internship, when you work in the art world im realizing things go at i much slower passe and there is just sometimes a "whatever", free spirited way about getting things done.
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