Useless Meetings Part 2

Yesterday I addressed a monograph on the value of conferences in the pursuit of developing cultural policy. The authors noted that generally, with the exception of really disorganized groups, meetings of this sort were not terribly valueable. My last entry looked at the barriers to success, today I want to review the solutions the authors suggest.

I should amend my former statement a little–the authors believe that conferences don’t contribute to the formation of policy currently. They do suggest ways to remove the aforementioned barriers so that constructive work might result. Among them are:

-“Build and foster policy communities within art and culture. Consider the creation of a convening authority an independent body, or honest broker, that can support special forums (what we are calling “policy thrusts”) to bring together different parts of the cultural sector to engage in focused and deliberate dialogue and to move from strategy and problem identification to consensus building, action plans, common research needs, and coalitions around pressing policy problems.”

-“Define problems, set agendas, develop policy alternatives and reform government services and programs. Arts leaders should encourage foundations and governments to create taskforces, working groups, and special commissions to advise and interject in policy conversations at the local, state and federal levels.”

In this regard they suggest keeping the focus of the taskforces limited “not simply “the arts in San Diego,” for example, but a topic that can yield practical policy recommendations: for example, youth and creativity; quality of life; spaces for creativity; cultural districts; creative industries; and support for working artists,etc etc..”

-“Improve methods to document policy discussions at annual meetings.” This seems to be exactly what Andrew Taylor’s band of graduate students have been doing at the National Performing Arts Convention. In fact, the report explicitly suggests using graduate students to act as recorders of “all policy-relevant comments. By identifying these statements, tracking policy concerns and more systematically documenting what is discussed, association staff and the broader membership can better gauge the policy dimensions of a conference session.”

-“Offer professional training and development: policy education through workshops.” Since many cultural administrators aren’t practiced in the process of policy making, the authors suggest workshops that empower people with the tools to do so.

-“Organize policy roundtables” As I mentioned yesterday, one of the research findings of this study was that conference participants felt more was accomplished in informal discussions after a meeting than at the meeting itself. The authors suggest that such post-event gatherings should be organized to encourage discussion by those who can attend.

-“Diversify participants and panelists and publicize and promote cultural policy expert.” As mentioned yesterday, the roster of speakers at conferences has become increasingly insular of late. The authors encourage not only inviting government officials, but people from other industries who can provide insight about policy development.

-“Call attention to the policy dimension of meetings…In order to highlight the policy dimension of meetings and to help attendees identify policy-relevant conversations, associations might consider identifying a “policy track” at their annual meetings…A track is simply a set of conference sessions that fit within a general approach or topic area. Many sessions can be cross-listed under more than one track.”

-“Conduct formal, in depth evaluations: National service associations should consider employing more ambitious evaluations – similar in scope to the recent pARTicipate2001 assessment in order to trace over a period of time the learning and action that results from a meeting. These evaluations can reveal how participants (from junior- to senior level arts professionals) approach meetings differently and how they take away from these gatherings.

-“Cross-sector initiative. Foundations interested in advancing cultural policy might consider supporting a special initiative to connect cultural policy to more established policy fields and help cultural leaders participate in broader policy discussions in their communities, states or regions.”

-“Integrate cultural policy concerns onto the agenda of other policy professionals. There is a wide gap between the professional planning community and the cultural policy community. Planners need to think more integrally about arts and culture, and they need to understand more fully how the arts can serve the goals of community/urban/regional planning.”

Some interesting things to ponder. I would certainly be more interested in attending conferences/meetings for policy education if people began to adopt this approach. (This is not to say I don’t enjoy attending conferences for the other educational and networking opportunities they offer. I have just been frustrated by a lack of what I perceived to be constructive, practical solutions.)

For all the material I directly quoted from the report, there is still plenty I omitted (specific examples of what the authors were referring to in many cases) so it would probably behoove anyone interested in policy formation to read the whole of the monograph.

About Joe Patti

I have been writing Butts in the Seats (BitS) on topics of arts and cultural administration since 2004 (yikes!). Given the ever evolving concerns facing the sector, I have yet to exhaust the available subject matter. In addition to BitS, I am a founding contributor to the ArtsHacker (artshacker.com) website where I focus on topics related to boards, law, governance, policy and practice.

I am also an evangelist for the effort to Build Public Will For Arts and Culture being helmed by Arts Midwest and the Metropolitan Group. (http://www.creatingconnection.org/about/)

My most recent role was as Executive Director of the Grand Opera House in Macon, GA.

Among the things I am most proud are having produced an opera in the Hawaiian language and a dance drama about Hawaii's snow goddess Poli'ahu while working as a Theater Manager in Hawaii. Though there are many more highlights than there is space here to list.

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