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Following up on a packed, well-received annual StatNet conference in August, there is a lot of news on StatNet-related events.
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If you are attending the annual ICMA Conference in Boston on September 23-4, please make sure to stop by the Collins Center booth (#223) in the exhibitor hall.
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New England StatNet to Host Regular Fall Meeting October 29 
Meeting Topic: Police Departments 
Tuesday, October 29, 2013
10:00 a.m. - 2:00 p.m.
Charlton Public Library, Charlton MA
Survey deadline: October 4
| This fall's New England StatNet meeting will be held Tuesday, October 29 from 10:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. at the Charlton Public Library. The topic of the meeting will be performance management in police departments. Sub-topics for the meeting will include police performance measures, crime analysis, use of geographic data in police departments, and additional topics to be determined.
Thanks to funding from the Patrick Administration's Community Innovation Challenge (CIC) Grant Program included in the Municipal Performance Management Program, StatNet participation is free for Massachusetts municipalities this year. Officials from out of state municipalities are welcome to attend. Please contact Amy Dain (information below) for details.
StatNet is a network of municipal officials using CitiStat or other data-driven performance management approaches. The group gathers three times per year for in-depth discussion of municipal governance and works on other collaborative efforts. Each StatNet meeting is focused on an area of municipal government, such as public works, human resources, or constituent relations. Participants in the meetings complete a survey about the topic ahead of time, and Center staff analyze the information and create a presentation to be discussed at the meeting. StatNet participants include mayors, city/town managers, town administrators, chiefs of staff, policy analysts, budget directors, HR directors, department heads, and other municipal officials who work on management-level issues.
To attend this fall's meeting, please RSVP to Amy Dain, StatNet Coordinator, at amy.dain@umb.edu. Please include names, titles, and email addresses for any individuals who will be attending. Also, if you are coming from a municipality, please fill out this survey no later than Friday, October 4th.
Here is a pdf version of the survey for printing. Please submit all answers via the Survey Monkey website, and not on the pdf version. If you will be collaborating with other people on the survey, it might be convenient to share the printed version with them and then have one person enter the answers into the Survey Monkey software.
If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact StatNet Coordinator Amy Dain at amy.dain@umb.edu or Michael Ward at michael.ward@umb.edu.
The full year's tentative schedule for StatNet includes:
(1) Fall meeting on police, October 29
(2) Winter meeting on inspectional services
(3) Spring meeting on public works
(4) Annual summer conference at UMass Boston on using data in municipal government
More details to come in future Collins Center announcements.
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Two Hundred Attend Third Annual StatNet Conference on Using Data in Municipal Government
Largest Conference Yet Featured Panels by Mayors and Managers, Analysts, and Subject Area Experts
New England StatNet held its third annual conference on using data in municipal government on Tuesday, August 20 in the ballroom of the UMass Boston Campus Center. The conference was designed to provide valuable and interesting content both for performance management beginners and for long-time practitioners.
Among local officials, the conference included participants from over 70 municipalities from four states. There were also attendees from the state's executive and judicial branches, as well as from area non-profits, think tanks, and academic institutions.
Somerville Mayor Joe Curtatone and John W. McCormack Graduate School of Policy and Global Studies Dean Ira A. Jackson opened the conference with remarks about the importance of performance management in improving the effectiveness, efficiency, and transparency of government at all levels.
Much of the day was devoted to a variety of break-out sessions on a wide variety of data and performance management-related topics. These included sessions on fostering collaborative relationships, making data public, advanced data analysis, and creating information systems to support performance management.
Attendees rated the conference very highly on the evaluation forms provided, giving the conference a mean rating of 4.1 (on a 1 to 5 scale). Individual sessions had means ranging from 3.7 to 4.5. Attendees were also given the opportunity to provide qualitative feedback, and many did so. The feedback will be used to improve next year's conference, just as feedback from the prior two conferences helped guide the planning for the most recent conference.
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Mid Atlantic Performance Management Group to Host Inaugural Meeting in Washington, DC
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The Collins Center is Partnering with Several Maryland and Virginia Cities and Counties, the District of Columbia, and the University of Maryland School of Public Policy to Help Launch New Initiative
Staff from the Collins Center will be participating in the inaugural meeting of a group of county and city officials from Virginia, Maryland, and the District of Columbia, and the University of Maryland School of Public Policy, who are launching a new performance management practitioner initiative on Thursday, October 10.
The group, which has not yet adopted a name, plans to hear from a panel of representatives from different benchmarking consortia and regional performance management efforts, including New England StatNet. Center staff will also run a short demonstration of the StatNet approach based on data to be collected for the meeting from participants. The topic of the StatNet demonstration will be performance management efforts themselves.
The meeting will be held at the State Services Organization's Hall of States at 444 North Capitol Street NW in Washington DC from 9:30 am until 4 pm. Any local government official in Virginia, Maryland, the District of Columbia, or the surrounding states is welcome to attend. For more information or to RSVP, please contact David Gottesman (Montgomery County, MD), Greg Useem (City of Alexandria, VA), or William Yake (Fairfax County, VA).
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School StatNet to Host Second Meeting October 8
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Topics Will Include Educator Hiring, Induction, Professional Development, and Evaluation
The next School StatNet meeting will be held on Tuesday, October 8 from 8:00 am to 12:00 PM, with a continental breakfast at 7:45 am and an optional lunch following. The location will be at the Worcester Technical High School at 1 Skyline Drive.
The topic of this meeting will be educator recruitment/hiring, induction, ongoing professional development, and supervision/evaluation, including updates on districts' progress with implementation of the educator evaluation system. The discussion will center around issues raised in consolidated district data relating to each of these topics.
In addition, the meeting will include discussion of several ongoing projects that School StatNet communities will be working on, including the implementation of performance management initiatives within districts, techniques of evaluating school performance, analytical work relating to district operations (e.g., transportation, food service, etc.), and collaborative projects with the State to analyze State longitudinal data so as to inform district-level decision-making.
If you are planning to attend the meeting, please complete these two steps:
1. Please RSVP by completing this form.
2. If you are coming from a school district, please have someone from your district complete the data collection form and send it to Stephanie Hirsch (shirsch@k12.somerville.ma.us) no later than Wednesday, September 25. The meeting's discussion will be driven by the information you submit. The collection form is available here.
Funded by the Commonwealth's Community Innovation Challenge Grant Program, School StatNet is led by the Somerville Public Schools, in partnership with the Chicopee Public Schools, the Fitchburg Public Schools, and the Revere Public Schools, as well as the Collins Center, the Eliot-Pearson Department of Child Development at Tufts University, the Strategic Data Project at the Center for Education Policy Research at Harvard University, and the Greater Boston District and School Assistance Center.
If you cannot make the Oct. 8 meeting but would like to be added to the Schools StatNet mailing list, contact Stephanie Hirsch (shirsch@k12.somerville.ma.us). More information on School StatNet is available here.
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Graduate Studies Open House
| If you're looking for in-depth information about McCormack Graduate School Programs or other UMass Boston graduate programs, this is your opportunity to meet faculty and talk about what we have to offer. We will also be offering a workshop on the graduate admissions process to help you understand application requirements. Financial aid representatives will be available as well to answer all your questions.
Graduate Studies Open House 2013
Wednesday, November 13, 4-7:30 p.m.
UMass Boston
Campus Center Ballroom
Directions and Parking
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Contracting with the Collins Center
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Agreements between local governments and the Collins Center are exempt from the provisions of Chapter 30b, the Uniform Procurement Act, since the University of Massachusetts is an instrumentality of the Commonwealth. Municipalities may negotiate a scope of services and a price with the Collins Center directly, saving both time and money. Similarly, Massachusetts state agencies may enter into Interagency Service Agreements with the Collins Center. For further information, please contact Stephen McGoldrick at stephen.mcgoldrick@umb.edu.
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The Edward J. Collins, Jr. Center for Public Management
John W. McCormack Graduate School of Policy and Global Studies
100 Morrissey Boulevard
Boston, MA 02125
Phone: 617.287.4824
FAX: 617.287.5566
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Volume 5, Issue 4
September 2013
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Collins Center in the News
Monson Selectmen Discuss Steps to Replace Retiring Town Administrator
Masslive.com, September 12, 2013
Town of Randolph to Hold State of the Town Forum
Wicked Local, September 11, 2013
Discussions on Permanent Town Manager
Boston Globe, September 7, 2013
Search Group May be Used for Town Manager Hunt
Foxborough Patch, September 4, 2013
City Using New Data Program
Boston.com, August 31, 2013
Palmer Receives $1.5 Million State 911 Grant for Regional Dispatch
The Republican, August 31, 2013
Residents Show Support to Teen Center at Recreation Forum
The Jamestown Press, August 15, 2013
Northampton and Westfield Discussion on Municipal Performance Management Program
Masslive, August 13, 2013
Saugus to Implement Performance Management Program
Wicked Local, August 3, 2013
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About Ed Collins
Throughout his outstanding public career, Edward J. Collins, Jr. epitomized the spirit and goals of the center that now bears his name. We at the Collins Center are proud to continue Ed's legacy - helping governments work effectively and productively for the benefit of their citizens.
More about Ed Collins
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