Best Practices & Idea Sharing
I have two stints on governance boards. One was the Education Undergraduate Society at MHC when I was studying to be a teacher. I served as treasurer for one year. The other was the Campus Hospitality Managers Association (CHMA - link below), where I served first as Ex-Officio, then Vice-Chair for 5 years during my tenure at Sheridan College’s Student Union. The CHMA is a Canada-wide organization with over 40 member universities and colleges representing hundreds of thousands of students. We hosted a conference in a different city annually, and several symposiums and other education sessions throughout the year. Past keynote speakers included celebrity chefs like Matt Basille and Matty Matheson, industry pros like John Taffer and Jeremy Parsons, and professional development consultants like Matt Rolfe and Krista Krziyzek. It started as more of a hybrid working board, but transitioned closer to a Carver model after hiring an Executive Director. I became moderately well-versed in Robert’s Rules and the general responsibilities of directing a non-profit organization, as well as the basics of strategic planning and allocating resources responsibly during my time on the board.
All of that is a long way of saying that I have a little bit of relevant experience in governance. Certainly not as much as some other candidates, but I’m a quick learner. One of the other major takeaways from my time with CHMA, though, was the concept of sharing best practices. When we were trying to sell a new student union or institution on joining our organization, one of the themes we talked about was exactly that. Imagine if Earls, Moxies, Browns, Milestones, and The Keg all got into a room together and shared successful promotions, features, recipes, and marketing ideas. THAT was essentially what CHMA offered - collaboration between successful hospitality operations to make it easier for newer, or less experienced, operators to modernize and streamline their venues. We started most annual conferences with roundtables called “Steal This Idea” where members presented successful initiatives from the previous school year, complete with costing, recipes, vendor supply codes, marketing materials, etc. that others could essentially use as turn-key templates. We were colleagues who were not competing with one another, so we could freely mentor each other and collaborate to provide great student experiences no matter which institution we were part of. Obviously there were some proprietary contracts and confidentiality limitations, but we were mostly open books with each other.
I’d really like to apply this mentality to municipal governance, and I think there might be some opportunities for quick, easy wins with the new Council. Obviously new and expensive initiatives must be thoroughly studied to ensure legality, compliance with the MGA and existing bylaws, and the like. But when we’re talking about something that's relatively low-stakes like backyard chickens, I think we can copy and paste from municipalities that are already doing it successfully. Calgary has a very thorough and comprehensive bylaw and program. Instead of piloting and hiring consultants like we often do here, let’s explore Calgary’s current system. There are likely items that might not apply to Medicine Hat, but the program on the whole is probably 90% of the way there for us to use. We’re not in competition with Calgary, so hypothetically there’s no reason for them to gatekeep the successes and challenges of their program between administrators. The same can likely be applied to green bin composting, TNR, secondary suites in laneways, and a whole host of other minor (relative to things like solar farms and large rec centres) initiatives.
The City spends an awful lot on consultants and third party reporting, often only to defer decisions to future meetings, then have more public consultation, then allow late submissions that then cause Council to defer again to consider new info, then finally make the decision they would have made anyway that aligns with the consultants’ recommendation. It’s costly in the sense of paying third parties, but it also has a huge labour impact when staff have to attend meetings for several hours, only to be thanked for their attendance and asked back for a future one where the decision will finally (maybe) be made. There has got to be a way to streamline this process. I watched it play out with the MCC discussion, which is obviously one of the very NOT minor decisions. One of my frustrations in that process was setting a deadline for public presentations, then completely ignoring that deadline and allowing more than 30 late submissions to be adopted into the agenda and record. Which then caused Council to defer a decision so they could ponder the submissions. If deadlines are meaningless, why set them at all? If 30 of basically the same strongly worded emails are going to have the same weight as thoroughly detailed plans from professionals in the field, why don’t we just put every decision to a plebiscite and get rid of Council altogether? (I’m exaggerating for effect - I don't for a minute think plebiscites are a good idea for essentially any major decision). My larger point is: this Council - and likely lots of previous ones - are hesitant to make complicated and potentially unpopular decisions.
I’m not. I am interested in making the best possible decision using the best possible information, and then presenting the best possible version of the argument to justify how I voted on the initiative. No matter the outcome, I know many people won’t agree with me, but I’ll be consistent and transparent about the process and rationale of how I got there. And I’ll stand behind it unless some previously unknown or unshared information drastically changes things (which is unlikely as long as everyone is acting in good faith). I’ve had to break bad news to my teams plenty of times in the past, and I’ve seen this exact process play out: they might have disagreed or been upset with the decision, but they understood why we had to make it and appreciated the management team being upfront and honest about it, and explaining the “why” behind it. I’m pretty convinced a city full of diverse and rational citizens, homeowners, and entrepreneurs who are often actively engaged in local politics and initiatives will similarly understand and appreciate this approach..
https://www.chmaonline.com/about
Missing my campus hospitality friends,
- Adam
