John Hakes for Mounds View School Board '15

Dear Voting Friend of the Mounds View Public Schools:

With November 3rd’s Election just two days away, your attention may soon turn to cast- ing your vote for the governance board of District 621.  Unless you’ve already paid some mind to the various campaign media, yard signs, or recommendations of trusted folks to make a final decision, it’s possible your vote may be swayed by the last-minute appeals of candidates & their supporters.

Having run two prior races for the Mounds View School Board (2011 & 2013), one of the  appeals for other candidates I’ve had to suffer goes something like this:

“I support (candidate name) for the Mounds View School Board.  Working cohesively with the rest of the Board, they’ve made great things happen for kids in our district.   Your vote for (candidate name) and the rest of the incumbents will ensure that excellence continues.”

As part of my last-minute appeal, I am asking you to suspend judgment created by this fear-based implication about my ‘challenger candidacy’ until you’ve read this piece.  In my view, I believe every candidate should stand on his or her own merits, not benefit from the subtle aspersions designed to scare people into making a particular vote.

This past Thursday, October 29th, the 5 candidates seeking the 4 seats on the Mounds View School Board took part in a public forum sponsored by the League of Women Voters of New Brighton.    

From my perspective, the forum was professionally handled by Virginia Bjerke, Moderator Mary Santi, audience members and the candidates.

And if you ask me, the answers I provided were complimentary of work already done by the District personnel & Board members.  Additionally, I strove to be open, substantive and to suggest things that would move the District forward in a constructive manner.

With your judgment still suspended, please consider the paraphrased responses I provided to the 12 extemporaneous questions put to all 5 candidates:

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1. Concerned local parents have recently brought much attention to later high school start times.  If elected, under what specific circumstances would you consider revisiting the board’s vote “no change” vote from last year?

A:  I thought the board did a thorough job on the start time issue for a first crack at it last year, but the specific circumstance calling for a revisitation would be my election.  Board members have indicated a willingness to look at start times again if there were sufficient public interest, so my candidacy gives voters a vehicle to express that interest.

The board agrees that health benefits alone justifies a start time change, but it does get gnarly when considering student connectedness (which Chair Jones had introduced).  I would encourage the District to look to the St. Paul Johnson High Pilot (of a later start time) where the principal has claimed there is more student connectedness after the change.

Our district has numerous community experts who should be allowed to weigh in in a more serious way.  Let’s move this issue forward.

2. What role should standardized assessments play in our district?

A:  They should play an important part because the PLAN and EXPLORE tests are precursors to the ACT exam, which our district does very, very well.  In 2011, the district went to 100% administration of the ACT exam, and scores have dropped a little bit now that more people are taking it.  I am a big believer in the preparatory classes the district provides having a daughter whose taken it herself and is in the process of doing so again.

Other than that, there is the battery of MCA tests, which give people good indications of where people are at in areas of technical science, writing and more substantive matters.

I don’t see the need to eliminate any of the exams that exist or add any more to what is there.

3.  As a member of the school board, what class size would you be committed to maintain for children in grades K-5, 6-8 and 9-12.

A: I would say that while class sizes are within approved ranges, I think they’re increasing beyond a comfortable level.  It’s hard to get a handle on what class size is given the number of breakout groups for reading and math.

What I can say is that it’s getting overcrowded and there’s not a lot of room to go when you have facilities as full as they currently are.  So …. lower than where we’re at.  Technically we might be there according to what the board approved, but it’s getting the point that either we need more assistants in the classroom or find new & different ways to deliver education to students.

4. Are there any areas in the curriculum you feel need to be changed or improved?  If so, what are they?

A: I’m a member of the Curriculum Advisory Committee which is a very informational group.  I like to propose things like this.  As an example, I suggested for (an existing) Word Processing for College class a way for students become more adept at electronic notetaking– for retrieving, working with information, that type of thing.

Mrs. Anderson, for whom I was a speech judge for when she coached, replied it’s not something that currently exists (where you could help students work with things like Adobe Professional and keep notes on One Note) but it was something she would like to explore in the context of the articulation agreements in place for this type of (Career Technical Education) class.

So there’s a concrete example of what could be done.

5. What caused you to run for school board?

A: That depends on which year you’re asking me because this is my third attempt at being elected to the board.  I’ve been a heavy lifter for the district 15 or 16 years now, all the way through my kids’ educations.  And I’ve enjoyed dealing with the things at the low level on up to the big questions.

The big question right now is that Mounds View has a really good problem on its hands that everybody wants to attend there, and as every candidate has indicated in their materials, we need a facilities plan.   We need to figure out a direction for the future to determine how we’re going to stem that (population) tide.

Just in the last couple of years, the student enrollment has increased about 350 to 380 students per year.  If that were to continue … add another 350 …. that’s practically a graduating class at a high school.

We need to find ways of solving this issue through new partnerships or delivering hybrid education and solve the start time issue at the same time.

6. In the event the district is lacking in financial resources, what would you recommend (e.g. levy referendum, cuts in staff, cuts in program)?

A: I think the District is in as good a position as any out there financially.  They had no budget cuts this year, they didn’t have to reduce any teaching staff … I believe the unreserved fund balance is approximately $26 million.  And they’re intending to use $2 million of that this year to cover the difference between revenues and expenditures.  So given the state influx of a 2% increase in the per pupil formula in the last couple of years and the sound financial management of Carole Nielsen and her staff, I don’t forsee that coming up any time soon.  We’re a well-managed district and while I’ve talked about the facilities as everyone else has, the upside of that is the district knows how to live within its means pretty well.

7.  How do you intend to convince millenials to move to the district and educate their kids here?

A:  I would agree that almost any real estate person you talk to would say that Mounds View Schools are at the top of the charts, so I don’t know that a lot of convincing is necessary.  There are a lot of people who continue to live in this area beyond having kids, so I don’t see it as an issue.  There are demographic challenges coming up in terms of meeting the Equity Promise.   We have a third of the students who are receiving free or reduced lunch.

So I know it wasn’t your exact question, but we’re going to have to deal with population matters that have to do with the Equity Promise as much as anything regarding demographics, although we should be trying to encourage people to get here.

8. How would you as a school board member interact with the unions represented in our district?

A: As professionally as I would with anyone else.   I did not seek endorsements from the unions, but that does not mean that if I were elected they wouldn’t have important business to bring before the board.  It gets complicated as to why a person doesn’t seek endorsements, but it’s a political world out here and things have happened in the past that make a person wonder why they should try to seek that endorsement.

But one thing I’ve learned in the world of politics … I’ve had some appointments and hung onto the tiger, so to speak, a few times … is that once you get elected you’ve got to let things go and work as responsibly as you possibly can.

9.  How do you perceive the role of school board member?

A: I would use my membership on the Ramsey County Library Board as instruction to how I see the role of a school board member.  Obviously a board has to act with one voice and deliberate in public and there are ultimately things that have a confidentiality threshold around them that only the Board Chair or the District Administration would speak on.

In addition to that, given the position of a board member, to be connected to the administration and be able to make outreach to people as well as receive a lot of inputs.  And while I’m sure all of these fine people have done their share of that,  I’ve probably done it as much without being a school board member.  And I would relish the opportunity to do that more.

Beyond that, I think there’s a gulf between the Board and the public, and we could solve that with the establishment of a District Advisory Committee.

10.  In the next 5 years, what are the greatest challenges facing public education in our district?

A: Sandra touched on demographics, Bob and Jonathan on facilities, and Amy on technical and career, I’ll take a spin at technology as well.  I think the District goes a good job of rolling out technology …. I think Google classroom has amazing potential for collaboration, providing timely feedback and engagement possibilities.

But technology is a big broad topic and when it comes to handheld devices I think the road gets a little dicier.  We’re in an era where smartphones, laptops, etc. aren’t going away.   But I would say that trying to figure out how to help students best manage their technology for productive reasons is a challenge of all districts, and it’s not going to go away.

I think this a particular issue at the middle school level where people get sidetracked and it becomes a time management issue.  And I hope there are resources available to help people figure these things out.

11. How do you think decisions should be made that affect curriculum & assessment, staffing and school management?

A: I would agree the management is up to the superintendent and his cabinet … the staffing decisions (which I presume to mean teachers) would be building principals … at least at the building my kids attended I thought there was an amazing relationship and mutual support going there.

And for curriculum and assessment, there’s something called an I Cabinet I learned last year…  Mary Roden & Angie Peschel & Gretchen Zahn and Doug Bullinger and all those people.    We’re pretty cutting edge in terms of high-performing teachers in our district, so they’re doing things right.  We’re adding a continuous (curriculum) improvement coordinator in Doug Bullinger this year.

I would encourage more public participation … I think sometimes the curriculum advisory committee is not attended because people don’t believe they can make a difference.

12. What are your views on the new common core standards?

A: I see as Ms. Jones did that the state has implemented them in English Language Arts, and we should follow that direction.  They’re basically inculcated into our testing.   On our MCA Reading exams a couple of years ago the scores started to drop statewide.  To me, that was an indication that the rigor people had suggested Common Core would provide did happen.

My measure of (Common Core) is are people better off than they were before … there’s a big non-fiction writing emphasis in the Common Core … and there’s a new Writing framework in Mounds View that’s in step with that– it’s going to require more research-based instead of just personal narrative type writing.

And I really look forward to seeing more routinely-performed writing across the curriculum that the curriculum department has decided to follow.

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Friends, I ask you to seriously consider whether the answers above place me into the  unqualified, divergent outsider as is so commonly suggested by people who don’t want me joining the Mounds View School Board.

In case you would like to dig deeper into that question about the candidates (or just see if they had good or bad hair days), you can find the full forum video here:

ISD 621 Candidates School Board Forum

If you are so thirsty for information 🙂 you’d like to review my prepared opening and closing statements during the forum, they can be found here:

Opening Statement

Closing Statement

I hope in the final analysis, you will find my views that District 621  is financially well run AND that the Common Core standards in English Language Arts are ones the district should be applauded for following … to be as sane as a board candidate can get.

For even my most significant suggestions for improvement– the medical benefits of a later high school start time and new facilities approaches for dealing with growing student enrollment– are things the board has, and incumbent candidates do, support.

Please have no fear, folks, and Vote John Hakes for Mounds View School Board on November 3rd.

If you do, I guarantee you will be very well-served.

Sincerely yours,

John

With 4 weeks to go until Election Day on November 3rd,  please accept this proposal as indication of my capacity to support good ideas on behalf of Mounds View Public Schools.

Your feedback, input & suggestions are always welcome.

Thank you to CTV 15 for extending this opportunity to candidates, and to you the viewer for sharing it as you see fit.

There didn’t seem to be anything remarkable about this particular volunteer assignment: two hours of packing & light lifting in Mounds View High School’s Information & Learning Center.  Maybe an ‘out with the old, in with the new’ textbook exchange, I thought.  Maybe the activity would help form a board candidate’s opinion on how much students enjoyed the newly-renovated space.

But true to Forrest Gump’s admonition about chocolates & life’s unpredictability, this small task turned out to provide a window into a phenomenon that is likely replicating itself in schools across the country– Mounds View High School included.

I regret to inform you, folks: history is passing from our school libraries, and perhaps you should know.

The books you see above were designated for removal as ones not having been checked out for 10 years or more, goes one of the criteria for putting a large swath of the MV collection on a plane to Africa, should a suitable district home not be found for them first.

While libraries have winnowed collections for years, and books are quite often bound for readers in different countries, I can tell you that this time it’s different.  The shrinkage of the materials footprint underway at Mounds View is substantial.  There will be no new poetic anthologies, no revised accounts of the Lewis & Clark expedition, no quick, encyclopedic volumes on Minnesota that come along to take these items’ places.

Changing technologies demand such a transformation some will say, and most of these works are likely digitized, it’s true.  But the question must be asked: If a prospective reader is not allowed the kind of browsing experience shelves of libraries afford, will she ever find one of these volumes electronically?

As a Ramsey County Library board member, I do understand.  Libraries everywhere are in a necessary phase of reinvention, part of which involves the quashing of traditional collections for new collaborative spaces and technology.  But as timeless classics and biographies on the human condition are ushered out and scores of now-you-see-it-now-you-don’t apps are brought in …. I’m worried, and maybe you are, too.

I am not offering this assessment  to win votes– what candidate in his right mind would throw out so somber a message as this?  I am not singling out the Mounds View Schools for academic negligence here.  And I don’t anticipate there being any way to slow this trend.

What I would like you to take away from this is that I, as your Mounds View School Board member, would seek every opportunity to provide district students as well-rounded an education as possible from as many formats as are available.

And that includes poems like this one from Tennyson:

No time to read?  Cut to this page for the first Tweets from @johnhakes.

Election aftermath for a non-winning candidate is not a pretty thing.  There’s the precipitous crash of expectations, the swift abandonment that goes with ‘losing’, and a new set of strained relationships just because you tried.

Double whammies also arrive in short order– like when your politically-innocent son arrives home from middle school to relay a student communication from the cafeteria: “I’m glad your dad lost the election,” a boy said straight to my son in 2013.  “He would’ve taken away our technology.”  (Feeling for your son and misunderstood is where the ‘wham, wham’ comes in.)

In each of my bids for school board, I’ve touched on the troubles of technology.  For the record, once again, there are many triumphs associated with it as well.

It is an unfortunate law of politics that even the topic a candidate works hardest on is subject to distortion by prospective voters.  In our culturally-fed zeal to categorize, past statements have likely caused many to quickly shuttle me into the out-of-touch, dinosaur, anti-tech category.  Again, that is not a reasonable characterization.

The easiest explanation of my position is that technology provides an awesome set of tools that, if applied well, can help a student reach untold heights.  At the same time, misguided technological use can prevent people from making any gains at all.  And then there’s a range of successes & setbacks in between.

Because I deeply believe that our critics give us the opportunity to show what we really mean, I’ll be taking up a challenge for the remainder of this campaign– tweeting my views & values as a candidate for Mounds View School Board.  Seeing as I’ve pushed hard on reducing frivolous technological use and the importance of more developed writing, it’s time to put myself to the test of conveying my political profile in 140 characters or less.

Over the next 8 weeks, every day or two, I’ll bounce out a thought for audience members to consider when they head to the polls on November 3rd.  Some will be sober, some may be silly, but each will represent an attempt to relay who I am as a candidate.

If you appreciate one, pass it on.  If you don’t, well, please pass that one on, too– adding editorial comments if you like.  If, by chance, you tire of receiving them, take a break, save one you liked, and ‘check out’ until November (note 2nd attempt at ‘dry’ humor).

These ‘tweetables’ will be found in several places– my personal twitter & Facebook account feeds, the ‘John Hakes for Mounds View School Board’ page, and in an aptly-named page tab at the campaign website.

Hopefully, at least one of them sticks, and helps me become your Mounds View School Board candidate of choice.  Feel free to let me know if this happens– or if it doesn’t.

Friends & families of the Mounds View Schools, I’ve filed as a candidate for District 621’s School Board, the election for which takes place November 3rd.  With the district performing well academically & financially, one might ask: “Why run?”

Because the electorate of Mounds View deserves a conversation, and had the election proceeded with incumbents only, that conversation would barely exist, if at all.

For background purposes, this marks my third consecutive campaign for a seat, as I made full-fledged attempts in both 2011 and 2013 (in the ’13 election I was the only challenger as well).  I also sought appointments to the school board in 2005, 2008, 2011 & 2014.

In each case, I believe I brought value– made something positive happen for the district– since I’m clearly not a continual candidate for the glory of being denied a seat.

Believe me I get it.  The Mounds View School District is a high-performing one, and well-regarded by post secondary institutions all over the country.  For the student who applies her or himself to their studies & activities, there are astounding possibilities.

But if you ask me, that success is not the outcome of any one particular board member’s contributions, and I firmly believe that adding me to the board would help the district be even stronger.

In 12 weeks, voters in the Mounds View School District will have the privilege of selecting four board members from a set of five candidates.

Please check into these pages from time to time as I seek to earn your vote on November 3rd.

Congratulations to Greg Madsen, Marre Jo Sager, and Jon Tynjala on being re-elected to the Mounds View School Board.  They certainly know what it takes to flourish politically in the District 621 attendance area.  Congratulations also to the voters who turned out in high numbers to ensure that quality programming and manageable class sizes are preserved for many years to come.  Ya’ done good for the students of Mounds View Public Schools.

My forward campaign did its very best to connect the interests of educational stakeholders by making outreaches of many kinds, through the trying out of ideas, and in frequent attempts to serve as a liaison between parties on issues needing to be worked through.

Life is too short and the education process too important not to have made these efforts.

To those voters who saw what my being on the board offered, thank you from the bottom of my heart. Thank you also to those who stepped outside their daily lives to provide a suggestion, worked to persuade voters using their own time or turf, or supported the campaign in ways that fit their skills and talents.

Unfortunately, we didn’t shock the world ala Jesse Ventura, but that doesn’t mean we can’t continue working on changing a corner of it.

You may have noticed the administration determined it worthy to begin incorporating the World’s Best Workforce legislation (aka Minnesota Statute 120B.11) that was central to this campaign– at the last school board meeting.  The administration’s plan to perform a “side-by-side analysis” between it and the district operational plan is something I– and hopefully you– will follow.  At its most fundamental level, this broad statute amounts to the Legislature giving more every day educational stakeholders the permission & authority to be at the table on matters of strategy, curriculum & technology.

The key ingredient to being heard on these things, though, is people caring enough to get involved.  For all the Keep Out signs I endured during this campaign, I still believe the district will accept– and respond to– the educational inputs of residents who choose to care.

One way my caring will continue is as a writer for the education advocacy group called MinnCan.  If you’ve found value in any part of my platform this campaign season (even if you didn’t vote Hakes) I encourage you to look up my work a time or two in the months ahead.  The slate of possible topics is currently wide open, and if you would like to suggest a topic or theme you’d like to see explored, I will consider it.

Finally, and most importantly, my deep thanks go to those of you who, during the campaign, somehow displayed the kind of zeal that made me feel understood– and the causes I was advancing to be worth pursuing.   While I may not be the type of people person folks normally associate with politics, your contribution truly helped  me ‘go’.

I could not have made the run I did without you, and hopefully, we’ll continue seeing you down the road.

The Constitution Party of Minnesota tested the political wits of three area candidates– New Brighton Mayor Dave Jacobsen, New Brighton City Council member Gina Bauman, and Mounds View School Board candidate John Hakes– in an early October forum held at the Mirage Bar & Grill, with former News Talk AM1130 Host Bob Davis moderating.

Billed as a long format Q & A, event organizers attempted to side step the sound bites to provide an in depth look at the issues relevant to the mayoral, city council, and school board races affecting the residents in the New Brighton area.

With topics ranging from development of the Northwest Quadrant in New Brighton to Common Core standards to relations between federal, state, and local levels of government to sensitive social issues– there was plenty on the political plates of the audience members and the 3 candidates attempting to serve them up.

After the initial introductions, Davis kicked off discussion with a question on the relevance of the US Constitution to the posts candidates were respectively seeking.   I responded by telling folks the word “education” is not to be found anywhere in the founding document, making it a matter that is left to the states.  After referencing the existence of Special Education law and NCLB testing, I attempted to dispel the idea that common core standards are a federal initiative by reminding people Secretary of Education Arne Duncan supports Common Core, but that it’s standards are not being handed down by the federal government.

In attempt to flesh out a richer discussion on Common Core standards, Davis later wrapped them into a question about Advanced Placement and International Baccalaureate curricular offerings.  I then offered my perspective of Common Core being a ground up, state-led initiative, that Minnesota had adopted the English standards but not the math, and there should be no concern about Common Core dumbing down the curriculum in Minnesota.

Healthy push back from the decidedly anti-government audience commenced, with host Davis asserting that Common Core was not a “grassroots” effort, and a repeated questioning of the candidate (John) on where they came from.  I held that while the formation of the movement was a bit mysterious, it still was not a top-down initiative of the federal government.

New Brighton City Council candidate Bauman then offered the example of her daughter who graduated Irondale High School under the PSEO program with great success.  Bauman followed with the suggestion that I, as a supporter of Common Core, was effectively saying her story was one that couldn’t have happened under the social engineering plan I was advancing.

Put on the defensive with the feeling that I was being cast as part of the education establishment, I responded: “I’m all about options & choices that fit the (family) situation” before referencing the quality work of homeschooling families I had met while door knocking in New Brighton.

A second topic that spritzed up the discussion was the operating levy renewal currently being sought by the Mounds View School District this November.  Needless to say, being the only school board candidate in attendance to publicly express support for it was not a pleasant experience.  In my explanation, I broke it into an emotional and rational decision, with the second of these supported by due diligence I applied to the matter using my background as a CPA.

My acceptance of the levy renewal was based on an assurance from the Association of Metropolitan School Districts, the fact that Ramsey County residents main property tax components are likely to remain flat for the first time in 20 years, and that the District has remained relatively conservative with its operations and facilities compared to other metro districts.

Additional topics I weighed in on from a school board candidate perspective included questions on keeping New Brighton attractive to young families, things I might bring to the table because of  my advocacy degree, and how the district might improve its 12 Habits of Mind soft skill curriculum for students.

If you would like to watch the 1 hour, 38 minute event in its entirety, here are the remaining playback times on channel CTV15:

Tuesday, October 22 @ 11 pm
Wednesday, October 23 @ 7 am
Monday, October 28 @ 3 pm and 11 pm
Tuesday, October 29 @ 7 am

(Note: The entire slate of candidates for the City of New Brighton and Mounds View School Board were invited, but just one from each opted to attend.)

The October 22, 2013 edition of the Shoreview Press featured this letter of support from Bill Conlin:

On Nov. 5, Mounds View School District voters have two important decisions:  the renewal of an operating levy and who to elect as school board members. I am supporting the ‘Vote Yes’ campaign and backing candidate John Hakes.

So what did I mean in promising to be a resourceful conduit to the community— the words that so bothered my mother-in-law?  To explain, I enjoy exploring subjects of educational concern people want facilitated.

Huh?

Alright then, let’s just call it coffee with the candidate, which if elected, I vow to do regularly.  I’ve been having quite a few of them lately (though not always with the black stuff)– and have found quite a few families who wrestle with reasonable use of electronic devices by their kids– both at home and in school.

Regarding kids’ screen time, we’ve all been there in one form or another with the limit setting, consequences and maybe even a Use Agreement or two.  But with personal electronic devices permitted in Mounds View Schools since a January 2010, metropolitan area superintendent meeting decided the times called for it, the challenge to regulate these devices for educational purposes has grown– and created a major obstacle to maintaining quality time & learning experiences.

Not only do many people in the 621 attendance area believe this, but the very people who work at the center of the tech industry in Silicon Valley do also, per this New York Times article. (Executive summary: A Waldorf School in CA is heavily populated by the families of employees at Google, Apple, Yahoo, and Hewlett-Packard, because of technology’s  inappropriateness prior to 8th grade.)

Currently, the Mounds View district generally permits the use of electronic devices in schools, leaving the interpretation of the policy up to individual classroom teachers.

If you are one who happens to believe this issue area is one requiring more careful deliberation, the good news is contained in Minnesota Statute Section 120B.11— a section of new state law which broadly charges local boards & their communities with the ability to make critical curriculum & technological integration decisions in their respective districts:

Subd. 2. Adopting Plans and Budgets.

A school board, at a public meeting, shall adopt a comprehensive, long-term strategic plan to support and improve teaching and learning that is aligned with creating the world’s best workforce and includes:

(5) education effectiveness practices that integrate high-quality instruction, rigorous curriculum, technology, and a collaborative professional culture that develops and supports teacher quality, performance, and effectiveness.

Since the reference to technology is more closely related to the technology that will further student education (and not personal use of electronic device matters directly) please consider the following published response I made to a candidate questionnaire requesting an improvement in Mounds View Schools:

One area needing improvement is technological integration in the classroom, which every one of my fellow challenger candidates in the 2011 board race– Lee Porath, Tim Husnik, Jonathan Weinhagen, and Marilyn Bunzo– believed as well.  I agree that schools should help students prepare for the 21st century, but simply allowing electronic devices in the classroom for educational purposes could actually move learning back, not forward, due to the technology not truly being embedded with learning.  Right now, devices are largely used for convenience, be they for accessing assignments online, taking tests on a cellphone keypad, or quick communication.  In my opinion, there is a significant need for a core informational technology class running from K to 12 that covers things like electronic note-taking and other applications, research and collaboration techniques, and knowledge theory– the last of which is a cornerstone for the International Baccalaureate Programme.

If you have a reaction, correction or piece of feedback you want to make, please do so by posting a comment in the box below this piece, or by sending it directly to me using the information on the Contact page.

You could also contribute to the effort by sharing this item with a network of yours.

Thank you to the people who shared their views and provided resources to make this campaign entry possible.

My mother-in-law Sue requested a campaign update with me today. Although she is an eligible voter in the District 621 election, a guy doesn’t need to be a political candidate to recognize the importance of making this kind of meeting happen 🙂

After arriving, I provided an overview, then offered as many details as I thought she might be interested in, before sensing she might be leading up to a particularly honest piece of feedback.  She was.

“Your answer to the candidate question about what skills you would bring to the board and why you are the best candidate,” she began while holding a copy of the local gazette.  “You said, ‘ … I would prioritize resourcefulness and being a conduit to the community above all else.’  I don’t even know what that means!” she said in exasperation.

Whew!  I was only being taken to the woodshed– or critiqued– as we mutually agreed to call it, for not tooting my political horn loudly enough.  But given the career she spent in HR, I still had some splainin’ to do.

“Ah, there was a 400-word limit for all candidates, and I chose to spend most of mine on substantive issues,” I replied.

“The readers aren’t going to know that,” she countered, before referring to the comparable sections supplied by other candidates.

“I like to diversify the information about the campaign by emphasizing different things in different places like my website, video and campaign literature,” I said in taking another run at it.

“But this widely read newspaper is the only place many people will look to get their information,” she said.

“Well, I did offer a link to the website for those who would like to get more campaign depth,” I said in a third justification.

“Yes, you did do that, and I do like the information you put on your literature piece,” she eventually conceded.

As any good campaigner knows, staying in the good graces of your supporters– especially one with a family credential like Sue has– is one of the most important aspects of an election bid.   And if you happened to read the piece my MIL was referring to, I apologize if it came across as gobbledy gook to you as well.

So what, then, do resourcefulness and conduit to the community mean, after all?

The piece “Technology Topics Gain Traction” was written to answer this question.