And the Votes Are In...

One never knows what the day may bring. Today's mail contained an evaluation of the session I presented at the National Middle School Association Conference in Denver around six weeks ago. The numbers were good. I was especially pleased with the response to the question, "I would rate this presenter as excellent." On a scale of 1-5 (with fours being "Agree" and 5 being "Strongly Agree"), the score on that question was 4.81.

Here are the comments:

• Great strategies and tools to move to a higher level of organization.

• One of my professional goals is to be more organized and to manage time more effectively. This hit the target.

• Good tools! I will implement it ASAP!

• If would have been great if Dr. Buck would have been able to present only to teachers and students at another session. He is very resourceful. Great motivation @ the end of the presentation!

• Really enjoyed session as well as the system. The trick will be to follow it until it becomes habit.

• Excellent, helpful, useful, and practical information.
  

• Thank you. These are tools I can and will use! WHEW!
  

• Excellent presentation, shared some strategies that I will try to implement to help me be more organized. Frank was impressive and his help/expertise would benefit our entire staff. I will explore the possibility of securing his services for an inservice presentation at our school.
  

• Practical.
  

• Excellent session. I am already ready to get organized better as a principal.
  

• Fantastic! Great info—can’t wait to try tickler.
  

• Really enjoyed the learning experience.

• Thank you—I needed this!
  

• I think the presenter did a marvelous job. I plan to go back and implement the things he shared. Thanks!
  

• Excellent presentation. Could be longer.
  

• Good tips given.
  

• One of the most informative sessions I have been to in 5 years.
  

• Excellent!
  

• FANTASTIC! One of the best I’ve been to! I could have stayed longer.

• Excellent practical tools.

The presentation said nothing about reaching the adolescent learner, how to improve test scores, or how to build positive public relations. Some other presenters covered those bases well. Every one of those good ideas, if implemented, would happen through the dimension of time. Good ideas not implemented would likely be blamed on lack of time. When the conference was over and everyone stepped back into the day-to-day activities and confronted the e-mails, phone messages, and left-over tasks, an organized approach to managing our time becomes our only hope of rising above the mundane and touching excellence.

Davonia and I had a great time in Denver. I felt like we gave people something they could use in every area of their lives. After reading the evaluations, these feelings were confirmed. If you are reading this blog as a result of attending the session in Denver, thank you! Thank you for taking the time to attend the session and for taking the time to stop by here and dig a little deeper.

NMSA 2009 will be in Indianapolis and the application is in the tickler file to complete this Saturday. Hope to see you there!