Friday, November 6, 2009

In the News - event canceled, rings come home

The article is a good one but came too late to help us drive attendance for the event. The event has been canceled. The team will re-group and likely try something early in 2010.


Local resident helps sponsor Laid Off Camp tomorrow

from The Milford Daily News Homepage RSS by Ashley Studley/Daily News staff

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Rings come full circle

from The Milford Daily News Homepage RSS





Thursday, November 5, 2009

LaidOff Camp Attleboro/Providence - EVENT CANCELED

Event: LaidOff Camp Attleboro/Providence - CANCELED

Date: Saturday, November 07, 2009 from 1:00 PM - 5:00 PM (ET)

Location:
Living Waters Church
15 John L Dietsch Blvd
North Attleboro, MA 02763

For more information click here: http://laidoffcampprovidence.blogspot.com/

Regretfully, the event has been canceled. We only achieved one third of the required registrations for this non-profit, all-volunteer event to break even.

The Team will gather information on what we learned during this process and likely attempt to create an event sometime early in 2010.

Your registration fee will be refunded in full to the credit card you used to register.
Thank you for your interest.

Foster systems thinking

Modern education systems deserve much of the blame, both for fostering the belief that education ends when a person leaves school and for its emphasis on being right rather than on how to learn from mistakes. This has encouraged caution rather than risk-taking, with individuals preferring to avoid mistakes when possible and hide them if necessary. The world’s four greatest statisticians never took a course in statistics, Mr Ackoff would point out, and three of America’s greatest architects (Henry Hobson Richardson, Louis Sullivan and Frank Lloyd Wright) never took a formal course in architecture.

Society urgently needs to find better ways of inculcating systems thinking in its decision-makers and public-policy experts in particular, he argued. It also needs to change how it accounts for mistakes. Currently, almost any accounting system you can think of records mistakes of commission, when a deliberate act goes wrong, but keeps no record of mistakes of omission: things not done that should have been. The result is a conservative, risk-averse culture that holds back the innovation that society needs.
Read the full article in The Economist here

Read more about the ideas of Russ Ackoff here and here




In the News - Town Council and School Committee chair selected

Franklin School Committee retains Roy as chairman

from The Milford Daily News Homepage RSS


Mason selected as Franklin Town Council chairman

from The Milford Daily News News RSS


Wednesday, November 4, 2009

Newly elected sworn in

The newly elected School Committee was sworn in this evening.


Two members of the School Committee were not present for this: Ed Cafasso (who was sworn in earlier today) and William Glynn.

They held a brief organizational meeting. Jeff Roy was selected as Chair and Paula Mullen as Vice-Chair.

Three new members of the Planning Board were sworn in this evening also:




Chris Feeley as the newly elected Assessor was also sworn in.

The newly elected Town Council was also sworn in.




Scott Mason was selected Chair by a 9-0 vote.  Steve Whalen was selected as Vice-Chair by an 8-1 vote. There almost was a runoff for this as Joe McGann nominated Bob Vallee but that nomination did not get a second. Judy Pfeffer was selected as Clerk by a 9-0 vote.


engage the Franklin voters

I'll have more later this week but my first reactions to the election results are

It is a sad day for Franklin when so few registered voters do exercise their right to vote. There are no excuses for weather problems, absentee ballots were available in advance. Only 16.4% of 19,780 voters bothered to cast a vote. Less than the two prior off year elections. The trend (if there is one) is going the wrong way.

It was good to see the energy of some of the newcomers to the Council race; Tina Powderly and Glenn Jones in particular. Glenn was observed on the triangle over the railroad bridge holding his sign in the rain on Sat Oct 24th and then again early Sun morning, Nov 1. Tina garnered the largest vote amongst the Council candidates.

The Brick School remains a significant factor in Franklin and although closed is still important. The results for Matt Kelly and Cynthia Douglas show this. Cindy running in her first election took in the top number of votes from all candidates. Teaching at the Brick School, over 30 years of good service, 20 or so kids at a time builds up relationships. Relationships that turned out to vote.

That newcomers garnered some of the larger totals seems to validate the message Ashley Studley, Milford Daily News reporter, was picking up from the voters leaving the field house. The attempt to vote out the incumbents ultimately failed as all were re-elected albeit some were by slim margins.

The problems of Franklin remain the same after election. They didn't just disappear because someone didn't vote for an incumbent. The challenge is clearly in the Town Council's hands now to come together and engage the Franklin voters/tax payers in such a way that our issues can be responsibly discussed and then worked to a solution.


domino falling in our direction

Tri-County is also affected by transportation cuts. Franklin sends a good portion of the students at Tri-County. A budget issue there could replicate back to the Town.

Regional school officials dismayed by steep transportation cuts

from The Milford Daily News Homepage RSS by Krista Perry/Daily News staff