Working with VLCT and Hartford, VT

This past weekend, I facilitated a workshop for the Vermont League of Cities and Towns with the Hartford, Vermont Selectboard.

The purpose of the workshop was twofold: to provide brief onboarding type materials for Board members, but more so to help the full Board take a structured look at its work ahead. We reviewed and refined project plans submitted by Town staff, discussed Board members’ emerging ideas and priorities, and then created a draft schedule for the coming year. This schedule mapped out when specific topics would be taken up, taking into account statutory deadlines, operational capacity, and the time needed for thoughtful discussion.

This kind of intentional planning is still relatively uncommon among municipal Boards, which often operate in a largely reactive or ad hoc fashion. However, the research and anecdotes are clear - establishing clear priorities and a realistic plan has several benefits:

• Improved Strategic Focus: Allocating time to deliberately decide what matters most—and when it will be addressed—reduces the tendency to let urgent issues crowd out important ones. This supports what management science often call goal alignment, ensuring that the Board’s time and attention actually match its stated objectives.

• Enhanced Predictability and Transparency: A clear schedule of milestones and decision points helps the Town Manager and staff coordinate their own work plans and prepare information in advance. This improves the quality of decisions and makes it easier for the public to understand when and how key issues will be considered.

• More Effective Use of Limited Capacity: Time is one of the scarcest resources in local government. By planning proactively, the Board can distribute complex discussions more evenly throughout the year, rather than clustering them in ways that lead to rushed deliberation or deferrals or issues falling in between the cracks.

• Stronger Organizational Buy-In: When elected officials and staff collaborate to develop a shared roadmap, it reinforces trust and accountability. Everyone understands not just what needs to happen, but why—and how their role contributes to the bigger picture.

Overall, while it can be tempting to rely on familiar routines or to respond only as issues arise, dedicating time up front to plan as a group is one of the most effective ways to ensure that a Board’s most important goals don’t get lost in the day-to-day press of municipal business.

Kudos to Hartford's Selectboard for taking the time to engage in this practice, Town Manager John Haverstock for setting this up, and for Vermont League of Cities and Towns who requested Rethink Local's help in facilitating this workshop and Kathleen Ramsay of VLCT for helping to design and producing excellent records of the discussions. Documents and plans will be shared once the Selectboard has a chance to review and finalize at: https://hartford-vt.org/.

Like Dwight Eisenhower said, "In preparing for battle, I find plans useless, but planning indispensable."