City meeting rooms, new and old, are a disastrous place to try to hold a meeting. Having a place to sit and being able to hear seem like basics.
I’d rather be writing about more timely matters, but sometimes, the little things get in the way. And these things are so little.
NOISE
Example One – ALRC Room 103A City-County Building
I was in 103 A the other day for a meeting of the ALRC (Alochol License Review Committee) where they were discussing the downtown alcohol plan. Before the meeting started various members were discussing the loud fan noise in the room. Someone described it like when you’re on a plane, and that has stuck with me.
Why do I care? Well, I often audio record meetings to make sure I get all the details correct. But its so hard to listen to them afterwards.
Here’s a clip of the noise in that room:
Example 2 – PSRC Room 204, Madison Municipal Building
Last night the PSRC (Public Safety Review Committee) met in room 204 in the new city-county building. I have multiple complaints about the room, but the biggest was that the committee members literally had to interrupt and ask people to speak up – to “use your inside outside voice” so we could hear them. We had to interrupt speakers, staff and other members of the committee multiple times to remind them. Here is just one example.
Other Examples
I know that when I’ve been in other rooms on the second and third floor of the newly renovated Municipal Building I have had similar issues, but these two are the worst examples.
Why does it matter?
Well, first of all, and most importantly, being able to hear what others are saying is a really important function of a meeting room.
Bigger picture, I’m so excited that the County is going to start recording their standing committee meetings and putting them into legistar (the legislation tracking program used for meeting agendas and minutes.) I think the city should too! However, if you can’t hear the recording, or they are as terrible as the examples above, it would be near useless.
CHAIRS
This isn’t the first time that people had to sit in the window sills and on the floor.
The linked post is from another meeting, but last time there weren’t enough chairs for the PSRC meeting I had to ask a staff member who worked in the building to go get more chairs. After the meeting I sent an email to the following people:
- Common Council President
- Deputy Mayor’s
- City Council Staff
- Facilities Staff
- Committee Staff
- Alders on the committee
- Co-chair of my committee
The email read
PSRC is scheduled to meeting in MMB room 302 for many dates in 2020. As the chair of the committee I’d like some chairs! 🙂
Hi Brenda, my understanding is that the person staffing the committee makes the seating arrangements they need with the appropriate operations person.
Perhaps in this case Steven King and Felix cced here may be able to help. Also I hear there is a sheet in most rooms if there is a crisis, (people are locked out, not enough chairs etc.) of a custodian number you can call in an emergency. I hope this helps.
And then the staff followed up:
Brenda – In a real pinch, we can provide additional chairs for Room 302. However, it’s not best practice. The room just isn’t laid out well for it, and those tables aren’t on wheels, so can’t be easily reconfigured. Our strong preference for meetings in the MMB where audience seating is needed is to use one of the bigger rooms (153, 206, 215) that are designed for this purpose. If you ever need anything for room setups, please let Felix (cc’ed) or myself know ahead of time and we’ll get you squared away.
I’ve also attached the “who to call” sheet here that Mary referenced and a quick sheet of notes on best practices for reserving MMB rooms.
This led to us trying to find a new room. And we tried. Eventually we’ll be in a better room for most of our meetings.
Last night, we were competing with the Madison Metro Bus Routes public hearing, and when I asked staff if we could get more chairs, I was told that they are already taking all the chairs to the other room.
Really, this just shouldn’t be so hard.
DOOR
Oh, and lest I forget. When the staff unlocks the meeting room, could the door please stay open so we don’t have to prop it open so the public can get in the room. Last night there was quite a bit of commotion causes throughout the meeting everytime someone sitting at the table had to move so someone could get in or out of the room and not slam the door into the thing propping the door open.
VIDEO SCREENS
Another huge complication last night was people didn’t have devices with them to view the agendas and the attachments to the agenda were not printed for the committee. (<- That’s not the complaint.) The complaint is usually I’ll plug in my computer or ipad and put the agenda on the screen and I can click on the attachments so people can read them. In the room we were in, we (myself and city staff) failed multiple times to figure out how to do that. The system is hooked up to a computer and there’s no HDMI cord to steal off the computer to access the system. Again, just waiting for a better room.
WE CAN DO BETTER
These meetings are hard enough, with controversial issues, extreme differences in opinion, committee members that need training (robert’s rules, making motions), staff that don’t have support and long agendas. The meeting room shouldn’t be an additional problem. Oh, and coronavirus. I have high hopes that the city will follow the county’s lead and the coronavirus will push us to using technology better and I believe, open up the meetings for more to participate.
Sigh. Honestly, I still don’t know who to complain to without getting a run around. I’m just hoping to make it through these meetings where we’re in a room that is inappropriate for us and get to the point where the public can be treated with dignity and respect. And the committee can property hear so we can make good decisions. And we have the technology that we desperately needed last night. I don’t think I’m asking for much. Just basic functionality.
