For the last 2-3 weeks, I’ve been taking part in Wilton and Durant school board meetings virtually. It’s been a nightmare.
Suppose you can say I’m old school. I’m the guy in our office my coworkers make fun of because I still use No. 2 pencils that need to be sharpened. And when it comes to covering city government and school boards, I like to be IN the room with papers in hand.
Thankfully, our local city councils are still holding meetings with an option of virtual call-ins. Yet some are offering documents virtually only, which I'm not a fan. Our school boards have been meeting virtually for a month.
I must refrain from complaining for a moment, however, to recognize both Durant and Wilton school districts for making sure that a rookie like me can get logged on.
It’s commonplace for me to be texting the superintendent or principals because I’m staring at a blank screen when the meeting is supposed to be starting. In my defense, I’m not that computer illiterate. It’s usually more of a technicality with how I’m “invited” to the meetings since I’m not a school board member.
Beau Huber at Wilton School District has been very helpful in helping me log into meetings and he’s often online the whole time to troubleshoot when Wilton board members or administrators have issues — and there’s been a few.
It just feels like the precautions for the COVID-19 virus, which we take seriously here and are abiding by, is severely pushing us backwards on our (or MY) hierarchy of communication.
When hiring a new employee, especially in sales, I always break down communication in three ways:
1. Email or text
2. Calling on the phone
3. Meeting face-to-face
What’s the best way to communicate? The answer used to be easy: face-to-face of course. It’s the most meaningful, thoughtful, and it’s the only way to read body language.
If a face-to-face discussion is not available, try calling someone on the phone. Not as personal but at least it’s in real time and you can hear and pick up on tone.
The last resort is sending an email or a text. A less personal form of communication I don’t know.
Yet in the last 15 years, those rules have been turned upside down.
How many times do you meet someone who says, “Text me. I’d rather text than talk.”
Really? Wow!
I remember walking the campus of the University of Iowa circa 2004, watching people stop on the sidewalk to sit on a bench only to send a text. Back then, phones weren’t smart and they didn’t have keyboards or touch-screens. You had to hit the same eight buttons over and over until you found the letters you wanted when sending a text.
This will be a fad, and a foolish one, I remember telling myself.
I’ve never been more wrong about anything in my life. It’s created an entire new world of communication. Don’t even get me started on emojis.
The COVID-19 pandemic has caused us here at the AN to resort to doing more emailing and texting as opposed to real conversations and/or face-to-face meetings. If there’s any silver lining to this ongoing outbreak, perhaps it’s that some of us will be yearning for in-person meetings whenever things get back to normal. That’s my hope at least.
Until then, you can find me on a webcam near you, trying my best to be a watchdog of our communities from the lonely confines of my office.
