After reading Lowell’s “Big Dig” molehill expansion on BMG last week, I thought it would be interesting to compare last week’s working group session (local government and budget) to last night’s (K-12 education).
Last week’s was in a room at city hall. Last night’s was in a school auditorium.
Last week’s had the working group at a table on the same level with the visitors. Last night’s had the working group looking down from the stage.
Last week’s had the facilitator welcoming everyone at the door, asking people to sign in. Last night’s had a sign-in sheet on a makeshift pad of paper in front of a closed door.
Last week’s had the moderators (Lowell Mayor Biill Martin and Deb Goldberg) obviously engaged with the speaker. Last night’s had the moderator (Margaret Blood) engaged with the timekeeper.
Last week’s had a three minute limit, but if you were interesting you could get to four minutes. Last night’s had a two minute limit, and you could get in an extra sentence. (Both meetings exhausted the speaker lists well before the end of the meeting.)
Last week’s working group had an obvious hole (lack of town officials) which they went out of their way to fix – by adding a selectman and former selectman Deb Goldberg. Last night’s group had an obvious hole (lack of teachers or school committee members) and no effort was made to fill the gap.
Last week’s was like a conversation with responsive elected officials. Last night’s was like testifying before the State Board of Education.
Last week’s was worth a drive from anywhere. Last night’s was worth a visit to the website.
Once again, congratulations to Mayor Martin, the municipal working group and faciliator Deborah Shah, and the budget working group and facilitator Tom Ryan, for a job well done.
What I couldn’t say in two minutes, I pasted into the transition website. 36 hours later, the following response arrived in my inbox.
Now I really wish I made it to the meeting last week