Archive for June, 2009
June 4th, 2009
If there’s any doubt that new Rockford School Superintendent LaVonne Sheffield has no intention of getting stuck in the swamp that is District 205’s history, yesterday’s ouster of the old guard ought to put that doubt to rest.
Sheffield announced the first of her cabinet changes this week, keeping two of the long-timers and sending three more packing. The ones with suitcases who’ll be looking for new jobs in the district or elsewhere include long-time numbers and operations guy, Tom Hoffman. Hoffman’s fingerprints have been on every school finance and budget sheet, and many of its operational programs, since well back into the early 1990s.
Superintendent Linda Hernandez, who wanted the permanent contract Sheffield got, told Register Star reporter Cathy Bayer that she was “shocked” at the news. “When you’re talking about a district that lives in the past and talks about lawsuits all the time, it’s kind of ridiculous to get rid of all the people with all the history.
“The three of us,” Hernandez said, referring to herself, Hoffman and 30-year veteran Marcia Strothoff, “have the institutional knowledge.”
I am all for institutional knowledge. Without that glue, an organization falls apart. The catch, however, is knowing when valuable institutional knowledge has become an albatross. The Rockford School District has been wearing its albatross proudly for decades. It has been living in the past for at least the last three decades, and some might argue four.
The loudest voices believe the real model for Rockford schools ought to be the one we used back in the 1950s, or, if we are really “modern,” the 1970s. Far too many in the community, the school administration and the classrooms continue to pine for the “old days.” (That’s frequently code for white-only, middle class, English-speaking, sit in seats and never talk back.)
Institutional knowledge is important. But, Superintendent Hernandez inadvertently proves my point when she says so clearly: “…a district that lives in the past and talks about lawsuits all the time…”
It’s time for those pining for the past to pass. I’d suggest not starting a sentence with “we’ve always done it this way” if LaVonne Sheffield is in the room.
June 3rd, 2009
“Did you write this column?”
There are only three answers to that: yes, no, and “sorta.” We’ve started asking every person who submits a guest column for publication in the Rockford Register Star that simple question.
If the answer is yes, we’ll consider publishing it. If the answer is no, into the trash it goes. If the answer is “sorta,” we’ll talk.
Each week, the Register Star’s editorial department publishes half a dozen or so guest columns — all local people, on a topic of local interest, and supposedly written by the person whose byline, mugshot and two-line bio are attached to the column.
I say supposedly because over the past couple years we’ve had recurring and nagging suspicions that some of these guest columns were being written by folks other than the name on the byline.
Nothing heinous, mind you; no whopping lies or plagiarism stuff. Just writing styles too slick and professional to be, well, honestly, to be that of a non-professional writer. Word usage that didn’t ring quite true to how we know the person talks. Pat phrases that seemed a bit too glib.
Think of it akin to having a speech writer or a ghost writer; you’re too busy or important (or illiterate) to write your own material, so you hire a ghost writer or speech writer.
That kind of thing is pretty easy to spot, actually. Most non-professional writers struggle a bit with grammar, spelling, syntax and organization. We do some pretty serious surgery on a lot of guest columns to whip them into shape for publication.
Full disclosure: I’ve written a couple of speeches for my bosses over the years. I’ve edited a column or two, as well. I have never ghost written a column for anyone.
The issue is not that someone else wrote the column and you put your name on it (though I find that slacker-worthy). Maybe you can’t write well enough or you don’t have time and you need your contracted or staff ghost writer to do it for it. That’s OK.
The issue is you misrepresented yourself, and, in turn, we misled our readers. When I read a column in the newspaper with a mayor’s pix and byline, I am assuming it’s the mayor writing it. Ditto for school superintendents. For executive directors of this and that. For head honchos of that and this.
Unfortunately, I suspect we’ve got a handful of guest column writers hiding behind ghost writers. Even if it’s only a teeny handful, each damages the credibility of other guest columnist. So, we’re asking the question: Did YOU write this?
If the answer is “sorta” then we talk. We might publish the column, but only if we state clearly something like: Written by public relations professional Sam Jones for and approved by Mayor Suzie Smith. We’ll even run the mayor’s mug.
June 2nd, 2009
I love to ask, explore and answer this open-ended question: “What if we ….” The staff in the News Tower, however, tends to roll their collective eyes or hide under the desks when I do.
They know, for sure, that whatever follows that “what if we” phrase is bound to up-end what they’re doing. Yeah, it might be something good, cool and important; or, it might all fizzle into nothing. Either way, it’s going to change things.
It was that “what if we” question that started us on our digital delivery journey back in 1996 and 1997 when I asked: What if we created some sort of electronic chat room for news? Shortly thereafter we launched the RRS BBS, a primitive, text-only, phone modem-powered, live chat room that in its heyday had some 10,000 participants — long before most regular folks had ever heard the words “bulletin board service.”
So far this year, there have been two big “what if we” questions. What if we created a local social networking Web site for Rockford Woman Magazine? We did and we’ll launch it in mid-June. It’s pretty slick. Nothing like it locally, for sure.
The second was “what if we were new to the Rock River Valley and wanted to build and launch a Web site — for which people would pay — and cover the news that the Rockford Register Star either didn’t cover, or that we could do better”?
The answer was easy: Create an investigative team of journalists and local experts who have the smarts and skills to report, write, opine, edit, take pictures and video and post galleries, manage social networking and blogging, and, yeah, write for print occasionally. For lack of anything better at the moment, I called it the “guerrilla news team.” We’ll come up with something niftier eventually.
The answer is simple; the doing’s harder. We have created the nucleus of the team, and are starting to think about local experts who aren’t on the newsroom staff and how we can incorporate them. Later this summer, we’ll begin the build out of the Web site. If all goes as planned, well before the end of the year, we’ll be live.
I shared lunch last week with what I call a “friendly acquaintances,” which means the person has political, social or business clout, doesn’t hate me or the paper, and enjoys batting ideas around, but doesn’t come to my house over for pizza and beer on the weekends.
He brainstormed this idea with me: What if you had a section on the new Web site, he said, where people in positions to really know what’s going on could float ideas to get feedback — even if those ideas weren’t ready for public discussion”?
I’m wrapping my head around that one. I think it’s got some legs. What if we ….
Next Posts
