First, I want to thank Scott for invit­ing me to the 1 to 1 Schools blog; hon­ored to be part of this!

I’m work­ing with a few col­leagues to help a school plan­ning 1 to 1 — and also think­ing about school stake­hold­ers.  These stake­hold­ers include board mem­bers, par­ents, stu­dents, teach­ers, admin­is­tra­tors, tax­pay­ers, and com­mu­nity mem­bers. How do you ensure that you have rep­re­sen­ta­tion and buy-in from these con­stituents when you are con­sid­er­ing some­thing with the far-reaching impact and poten­tial of 1 to 1?  In my book, an umbrella “Vision Com­mit­tee” is described.  The source of this approach is a num­ber of suc­cess­ful ini­tia­tives includ­ing the State of Maine’s pro­gram lead by vision­ary Bette Man­ches­ter. 

Assem­bling a Vision Committee/Team com­bines art and sci­ence, left and right brain, yin and yang, dream­ers and doers. It requires a mix of inter­ests and agen­das along with adher­ence to over­all goals. You don’t want to leave out any con­stituent groups  – but you want to be sure every­one knows and buys in to the team’s pur­pose. Stake­hold­ers have to feel they are con­tribut­ing and being heard, and the team has to form, storm, norm and per­form. Given the proper ingre­di­ents, this team can pro­duce the most aro­matic and deli­cious stew. But with­out a chef stir­ring and sim­mer­ing cor­rectly, a stew can stick along the way and even turn into some­thing unpalat­able. The School Leader who empow­ers and helps bal­ance the Vision Com­mit­tee will be the Iron Chef for 1 to 1.