When Pearl Atkinson-Stewart saw a figure lurking outside in the dark, she circled the neighborhood in her car a few times, then “ran like crazy” to her Owen Brown home.
She was returning at close to 1 a.m. from a grueling five-hour Columbia Association board meeting, which began at 7:30 p.m. The bimonthly meetings have stretched as late as 1:15 a.m. in recent months.
The lengthiness of meetings topped the list of the association procedures that a board-commissioned task force was created to address. The task force disbanded in April after its term expired.
The task force recommended that the board do more work during committee meetings, and limit board meetings to 2.5 hours once a month.
“When you have 10 people sitting in a room trying to come to a decision, it just takes forever. Everyone has something to say,” said Atkinson-Stewart, a member of the association and its Process Improvement Task Force.
To reduce the length and number of the board meetings, the task force suggested paring the number of committeesfrom 14 to four. Every board member would be assigned to a committee.
Under the change, board members would have ample time to analyze a few of the issues, instead of all of the board members being spread thin debating all of the issues.
The four new groups would cover planning, performance monitoring, external relations and auditing, instead of the 14 committees that cover everything from the budget to scholarship awards.
By pushing more of the analysis of association issues to the committees, the board could hold short, efficient meetings when key decisions could be made.
The board is considering paying professional efficiency expert Doug Eadie $16,000 for help enacting the changes.
Task force
Columbia Association?s Process Improvement Task Force did not address:
» Dealing with a crisis
» Not following legal advice
» Not following bylaws and rules
