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• I agree

  54 votes

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  Client/Customer Satisfaction »

  Develop virtual meeting and telecommuting capabilities

  We are driving too much, unnecessarily. Every day county employees use our fleet of vehicles to attend work meetings. And, each mile that we ...more »

  We are driving too much, unnecessarily.

  Every day county employees use our fleet of vehicles to attend work meetings. And, each mile that we drive on our private cars for county business must be reimbursed. Additionally, many employees drive many miles each day to attend to business that could be done remotely. This driving means very high costs in maintaining our vehicles, gas, insurance and higher medical expenses due to long hours driving. Employees spend valuable time on the road instead of attending to our jobs, and we unnecessarily pollute the environment; for example, an hour long meeting becomes a two hour event due to driving. These expenses could be dramatically lowered by meeting online.

  Driving has many risks, expenses and disadvantages; it affects negatively our performance, physical and mental health. For example, I drive over ninety miles, across three counties and the Bay (= bridge toll) each day and spend hundreds of dollars each week in order to come to work. My commute can last over ninety minutes each way and I often arrive to work already stressed and with an aching back. Often I see accidents on the road and my family fears one day it might be me involved in one.

  Some of us do most of our work on our computers, at our desks, so we could easily telecommute several days a week. This would not only save us lots of money in gas, insurance and chiropractor bills, but also provide some extra valuable time to spend with our family and community. We would pollute less and save resources. It would make us even happier, more balanced and serene citizens and employees who could devote more fully to our duties and families.

  If we develop more the capacity to hold meetings online and to telecommute we could save hundreds of thousands of dollars each month. It is surprisingly easy to communicate and interact with supervisors and coworkers working remotely. The technology to meet online is not only widely available but getting more and more affordable and easier to use by even the least technically inclined people

  Virtual meetings and telecommuting are win-win propositions! They point to the way of a smart future, let us be at the vanguard in this area too! Please support this idea!

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  6 comments

  Submitted by JAW 4 months ago

• I agree

  49 votes

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  Food trucks at lunchtime

  Food trucks are becoming more numerous and popular. There are a larger variety of foods, including upscale foods from diverse cultures. We could ...more »

  Food trucks are becoming more numerous and popular. There are a larger variety of foods, including upscale foods from diverse cultures. We could invite food trucks to sell food and drinks at County locations during lunchtime. They could park in loading zones or other restricted zones for a fee. They could rotate to different locations so employees have a good variety of foods every day. This could increase revenues, increase staff productivity if they don't have to go as far for lunch, increase staff satisfaction if they have better lunch choices available, and further our multicultural awareness.

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  3 comments

  Submitted by CL 4 months ago

• I agree

  48 votes

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  Partnerships »

  Employee Development

  Adapt the existing Management Talent Exchange Program (MTEP) for internal talent development. Have employees (at all levels, not just management) ...more »

  Adapt the existing Management Talent Exchange Program (MTEP) for internal talent development. Have employees (at all levels, not just management) apply for the opportunity to work on special projects/assignments for other departments (it doesn't even have to be full-time assignments...employees can split time working for their "home" and "exchange" departments). Employees get new career development opportunities and exposure to the work that gets done in other county departments. Departments get help with special projects without hiring/training extra help.

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  1 comment

  Submitted by Community Member 4 months ago

• I agree

  40 votes

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  Room numbers and Hospital navigation

  SMMC is a small hospital but it can be difficult to find one's way around the buildings. Almost all offices and rooms at SMMC do not have room ...more »

  SMMC is a small hospital but it can be difficult to find one's way around the buildings. Almost all offices and rooms at SMMC do not have room numbers and patients are always lost. There are long corridors and most of the signs are out of date and obviously incorrect. Many patients are often lost, many patients waste time trying to find their way around the hospital and sometimes employees themselves find it hard to navigate the building. Other hospitals have room numbers and color coded corridors or areas, with room numbers stacked from one floor to the next (eg room 201 is directly on top of 101). We propose a project to finally apply systematic room numbers and create wide spread maps to offices and areas of SMMC to better help with patient navigation.

  Improved navigation around the hospital would improve patient satisfaction and project an image of organization and efficiency.

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  2 comments

  Submitted by cualopingmd 4 months ago

• I agree

  39 votes

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  job sharing/part-time

  I as a mom would love to be able to work part-time or job share with another person. I know the union and the county would need to hash details ...more »

  I as a mom would love to be able to work part-time or job share with another person. I know the union and the county would need to hash details out. It would save on benefits to the county and save the family on childcare and would reduce on traffic, and on absentism for the county.

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  1 comment

  Submitted by Tby 4 months ago

• I agree

  31 votes

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  Day Care Facility at Health Campus

  Refurbish the unoccupied building and yard at the corner of Hacienda & 37th Avenue to become an additional County-sponsored Day Care facility ...more »

  Refurbish the unoccupied building and yard at the corner of Hacienda & 37th Avenue to become an additional County-sponsored Day Care facility for Health System/County employees and surrounding community families. The County could partner with an agency for facility operations (e.g. such as Marin Day Schools-Our Place on the Redwood City campus) and the rent charged to the agency could at least offset any charges or costs to the County for subsidizing County families. Not only would this improve access to high quality, local care for Health System employees with young children, it would also usefully occupy a space that is vacant. NOTE: If the space is not available to be refurbished, consider using any other available vacant space (such as ground floor of SMMC).

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  2 comments

  Submitted by cheinz 4 months ago

• I agree

  30 votes

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  Client/Customer Satisfaction »

  Reduce, Reuse, Discount!!!

  Reward system for bringing your own containers to the cafeteria: If one brings their own coffee mug/drink container or to go container/tupperware ...more »

  Reward system for bringing your own containers to the cafeteria:

  If one brings their own coffee mug/drink container or to go container/tupperware to the hospital cafeteria there should be a discount in place. Something like 5% off total bill. Or there can be a stamp reward system like at the local yogurt shop. For every 10 visits you bring your own mug you get a free cup of coffee or tea. Or for every 10 meals you have brought your own tupperware you get a free meal.

  This would eliminate a lot of trash and containers. There have been many times when the only containers they have available are the big ones and all I purchase is a small biscuit and bacon.

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  Submitted by E$$$ 4 months ago

• I agree

  24 votes

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  Green Initiative = Energy Savings

  At the recently purchased Circle Star buildings, investigate idea of procuring a solar facility system to be installed on roof. A selected solar ...more »

  At the recently purchased Circle Star buildings, investigate idea of procuring a solar facility system to be installed on roof. A selected solar provider would lease the rooftop space from County and be responsible for installing the solar panel system. In turn, the County would purchase energy generated from the solar facility. Such an arrangement would be a win-win - no County general funds would be needed for solar installation; County would benefit from lowered energy consumption costs. While the system may not be able to provide 100% of the the structures' energy needs, it could supplement enough to be cost effective.

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  Submitted by myu 4 months ago

• I agree

  19 votes

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  Trimming unneeded funds in departmental budgets

  The FY 2010-11 final fund balance adjustments totaled $50,267,620 for all County funds. While there are many legitimate reasons why departments ...more »

  The FY 2010-11 final fund balance adjustments totaled $50,267,620 for all County funds. While there are many legitimate reasons why departments have positive fund balances to carry forward at the end of the year, some of the positive fund balances are due to excess funds built into departmental budgets (i.e. "fluff"). One way to reduce "fat" budgets to "lean" budgets is to change the methodology for setting annual Net County Cost targets.

  For the past few years, annual budget targets have been set by taking prior year budgets and reducing them across the board by some calculated percentage (e.g. 10%) with varying exceptions. Budgets would be more lean and accurate if annual budget targets were set by using prior year actuals, coupled with departments' explanations of variances and exceptions. If departmental budgets were reduced to within 2% to 5% of prior year actuals, the County's structural budget deficit could be reduced, and our budget situation could be more accurately quantified.

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  Submitted by CL 4 months ago

• I agree

  18 votes

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  Re-purpose the old Receiving Home on the SMMC campus

  One of the biggest cost drains on SMMC are "Administrative Days" - those days that patients are in the hospital beyond what is medically necessary. ...more »

  One of the biggest cost drains on SMMC are "Administrative Days" - those days that patients are in the hospital beyond what is medically necessary. These days are generally not reimbursed, but cost the same as reimbursed days. The is particularly a problem for the Psychiatric Unit. Most patients end up staying longer becasue of a lack of an appropriate place for them to go. I suggest re-purposing the old Receiving Home on the SMMC campus to either: A.) meet other licensing standards that would allow patients to be moved there (for continued reimbursement) when they no longer need acute care; or B.) create a less expensive environment in which to house patients even if it is still not rimburseable. The first holds the possibility of actually generating revenue (if licensing standards could be met. The second would/could at least reduce expenses.

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  2 comments

  Submitted by jbeaumont 4 months ago

• I agree

  16 votes

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  Client/Customer Satisfaction »

  County System Freecycle

  Start to recycle unused items around the county using the groupwise, i.e. books, materials, craft items, office item, etc. It could also be ...more »

  Start to recycle unused items around the county using the groupwise, i.e. books, materials, craft items, office item, etc. It could also be used to get needed items for clients such as baby clothes, stollers, etc.

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  Submitted by Samantha 4 months ago

• I agree

  15 votes

  I disagree
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  SMMC register as an FQHC for Medicare Reimbursement

  Currently, SMMC is registered for reimbursement from Medicare as a "short term hospital". However, SMMC is a Federally Qualified Health Center ...more »

  Currently, SMMC is registered for reimbursement from Medicare as a "short term hospital". However, SMMC is a Federally Qualified Health Center (FQHC) and could regtister for reimbursement from Medicare as a FQHC. According to the Health Resources Sercices Administration (HRSA) website, the benefits to doing so include: cost based reimbursement for services to Medicare patients and reimbursement for the "first dollar" of services because the Medicare deductible is waived for FQHC services. The latter item would be a huge benefit to our Medicare patients who would not have to pay the deductble. In addition, it would remove the effort and cost of attempting to collect the deductibe from the patients. While I am not certain of the impact on our Care Advantage Medicare participants, there are around 1,400 non-Care Advantage Medicare patients served by SMMC. If they average the typical 3 or so visits per year, thet would be around 5,000 visits. It the reimbursement for each visit is just $20.00 greater, the additional revenue would be over $100,000. Plus receiving the dollars for any of the deductibles that currently go uncollected. And it could potentially be much more. SMMC is already a FQHC for Medicaid/MediCAL reimbursement. It should do the same for Medicare.

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  1 comment

  Submitted by jbeaumont 4 months ago

• I agree

  15 votes

  I disagree
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  Partnerships »

  Out-of County Work

  Many Social Workers within CFS have clients throughout the state and in other parts of the country even. A plan could be looked at to consolodate ...more »

  Many Social Workers within CFS have clients throughout the state and in other parts of the country even. A plan could be looked at to consolodate travel, visits etc. to minimize travel expenses, overtime, time exhausted traveling, etc. For example- If I have a case in Santa Barbara, it is too far of a drive to do in one day, which requires overnight stay, essentially taking up at least two work days. I am being paid for driving, lodging, meals and overtime for two days only to spend a limited amount of time providing services to the client. Another worker in another unit may have a client in San Luis Obispo and proceeds to make the same trip, utilizing the same amount of resources.

  What would happen if there were even a centrally located spreadsheet of out-of-county clients that workers could access to coordinate travel. Shared car, shared hotel and shared driving could even cut four work days and alot of money down to one work day and lots of savings!

  Another suggestion would be to have one worker assigned to make contact with all southern California clients that are stable in placement alternate months and where the social worker and supervisor have assessed that it is appropriate. That would save countless hours, and dollars! One worker spending two days in So Cal and seeing 10 children compared to 10 workers do the same!

  Where Probation and CFS are involved POs and SWs be mandated to travel together for monthly compliance out of the area.

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  Submitted by aprillefresh1 4 months ago

• I agree

  14 votes

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  CSA Box Delivery at Different County Offices

  I propose we work with San Mateo County growers that sell Community-Supported Agriculture (CSA) boxes to create distribution sites for county ...more »

  I propose we work with San Mateo County growers that sell Community-Supported Agriculture (CSA) boxes to create distribution sites for county offices. There are at least two farms that currently offer CSA boxes: Bluehouse Farm and Potrero Nuevo. Buying CSA boxes filled with local produce supports a sustainable food system and our county growers, enhances our local economy, and reduces our carbon footprint.

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  Submitted by Community Member 4 months ago

• I agree

  12 votes

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  Revenue Generation - Circle Star Electronic Sign

  Allow businesses to advertise on the newly acquired Circle Star electronic sign off 101. County to develop parameters for acceptable advertising. ...more »

  Allow businesses to advertise on the newly acquired Circle Star electronic sign off 101. County to develop parameters for acceptable advertising. In between flashing ads, County, as part of public service, to also allow local nonprofits to advertise upcoming community events or other public service announcement.

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  Submitted by myu 5 months ago

• I agree

  12 votes

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  Client/Customer Satisfaction »

  Plans Distribution

  By state law we are required to provide plan rooms with an electronic copy of plans and specifications. In the past the department has been ...more »

  By state law we are required to provide plan rooms with an electronic copy of plans and specifications. In the past the department has been doing this by mailing CDs. With current technology the same can be sent electronically as well as addendums and other documents. Saving material costs and staff time

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  Submitted by rmogel 4 months ago

• I agree

  10 votes

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  Client/Customer Satisfaction »

  Bipolar Hospital Climate control

  Patients and hosptial employees alike c/o either being too hot or too cold in the hospital. Frequently patients need multiple blankets just ...more »

  Patients and hosptial employees alike c/o either being too hot or too cold in the hospital. Frequently patients need multiple blankets just to sit in a room for an interview. Overheated employees frequently flip the thermostat "all the way up" in frustration. Likewize, employees when too cold over react and the thermostat goes all the way down. The suggestion here is to limit the range on the thermostat between 65 F to 78 F

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  1 comment

  Submitted by lhjelm 4 months ago

• I agree

  9 votes

  I disagree
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  Client/Customer Satisfaction »

  Performance improvement-Contracts

  Currently, the Controller's Department requests signed Board resolutions before they will encumber a new contract. It would be a great help ...more »

  Currently, the Controller's Department requests signed Board resolutions before they will encumber a new contract. It would be a great help if the Clerk of the Board, fowarded the signed Board resolutions directly to the Controller's Department after they were approved.

  The Controller's Department would notify the affected department the contracts are ready to encumber.

  A change to this process, would improve customer service and save time.

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  Submitted by rstein 4 months ago

• I agree

  8 votes

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  County Business Carpool Incentive

  When using a personal vehicle for county business (to/from meetings, trainings and events), County employees receive a $3 incentive for each ...more »

  When using a personal vehicle for county business (to/from meetings, trainings and events), County employees receive a $3 incentive for each additional passenger they transport.

  If 1,000 employees transport 1 additional passenger each week on a 20-mile round trip, the savings to the county would be $421,200 per year.

  Indirect benefits include:

  - Reduced congestion and pollution.

  - Employees will spend travel time discussing work activities.

  - Employees will be more likely to commute by public transportation if they don't need to rely on their personal car during the workday.

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  1 comment

  Submitted by Community Member 4 months ago

• I agree

  4 votes

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  Cost, safety, environmental savings

  As a psych nurse, potential cost/ safety/ environmental savings. We could buy juices in cartons. MULTIPLE cups or boxes are poured into plastic ...more »

  As a psych nurse, potential cost/ safety/ environmental savings. We could buy juices in cartons. MULTIPLE cups or boxes are poured into plastic pitcher liners, with ice, to serve patients. The liners are an environmental burden, and are unsafe when torn by psych patients. Why not switch to large paper cups? Juice boxes have sharp straws, to penetrate the box seal. Not safe!

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  1 comment

  Submitted by CMontgomery 4 months ago

• I agree

  3 votes

  I disagree
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  Volunteer/Advocate

  Train volunteers to be pt. advocates to help our patients navigate our system and help them to connect to the departments they need. Help them ...more »

  Train volunteers to be pt. advocates to help our patients navigate our system and help them to connect to the departments they need. Help them to make appt.'s, contact their doctor or nurse when there is a problem, check on any problem with getting their medications. I think our patients would really benefit from this service and it wouldn't cost anything if volunteers could handle these tasks. And I think the volunteers would like to help patients when they are appreciated for their service.

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  1 comment

  Submitted by Community Member 4 months ago

• I agree

  3 votes

  I disagree
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  Flowchart for my procedure

  ADVANTAGES OF USING FLOWCHARTS The benefit of using flowcharts is not very well known, but in concrete, there is couple of good reasons we ...more »

  ADVANTAGES OF USING FLOWCHARTS

  The benefit of using flowcharts is not very well known, but in concrete, there is couple of good reasons we should take in consideration. For instance, for trespassing information, like specific procedure, instructions on processes on how we should proceed to accomplish certain task, some time might became tedious, time consuming, and finally it will converge into the bottom line, which is a financial issue.

  To do this we need somebody who knows how to do the job in order to give instructions, usually a supervisor, lead, and or a skilled coworker. It’s understood each of them with specific salaries according to their category. Now the time that will be spent in each person varies, as will vary financially. But, we know people in general will never get the whole information at once. So, more than one session will be needed in order for the employee get confidence in the new responsibility. Later on, a new situation presents when this worker already mastering this procedure has to leave the institution, or another one needs to be trained as part of a team.

  In few words, our real work will be, in spending 30 to 60 min in building an effective flowchart that reflects the most remarkable decision, and execution points along the flow. This way the trainee will count on a graphical instruction to follow and consult as desired, avoiding long wasting time, on redundant questions over and over again, specially when certain situation will not be faced too often.

  Once the flow is clear, then everything is reduced to a good interpretation with a good explanation, which in certain cases will be just the delivery of the flowchart itself. Training is a serious business that it should be taken seriously, (effectiveness + efficiency) = $aving

  Some benefits of flowcharts:

  1. Communication: Flowcharts are better way of communicating the logic of a series of instructions to all concerned.

  2. Effective analysis: With the help of flowchart, problem can be analyzed in more effective way.

  3. Proper documentation: flowcharts serve as a good documentation, which is needed for various purposes, even to improve itself.

  Some limitation of flowcharts:

  1. Complex logic: Sometimes, the problem is quite complicated. In that case, flowchart becomes complex and clumsy.

  2. Alterations and Modifications: If alterations are required the flowchart may require re-drawing completely.

  3. Reproduction: As the flowchart symbols cannot be typed, reproduction of flowchart becomes a problem. (Power Point might be useful)

  4. The essentials of what is done can easily be lost in the technical details of how it is done. So is important to document the flowchart.

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  1 comment

  Submitted by JAstudillo 4 months ago

• I agree

  1 vote

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  Client/Customer Satisfaction »

  Offer Discount for Early Property Tax Payments

  My suggestion is to offer a 1% discount to people who pay their property taxes early. Currently Property taxes have due dates long before the ...more »

  My suggestion is to offer a 1% discount to people who pay their property taxes early.

  Currently Property taxes have due dates long before the deadline dates of April 10 and December 10. If people had the incentive to pay their taxes early, then the County would be able to tax advantage of having the money earlier for: 1) cash flow purposes, and 2) interest earning opportunities.

  A 1% dicount on an average bill of $3000 would encourage many people to pay earlier, and the County would easily be able to recoup that money in the ways identified above.

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  Submitted by dfrank 4 months ago

• I agree

  -7 votes

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  More Public Parking Metered Spaces

  The County Prius parking along Bradford in front of the Traffic Court and 555 could be relocated to the FATCO lots a few steps away. This would ...more »

  The County Prius parking along Bradford in front of the Traffic Court and 555 could be relocated to the FATCO lots a few steps away. This would open up much needed public spaces and would generate revenue by parking meters and fines. (When the machine is working!) I understand that taking anyone's parking is a very serious matter but a little sprucing up and some additional lighting would make the FATCO lots attractive. The additional revenue might overcome the additional steps to a parking place.

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  Submitted by Community Member 4 months ago

• I agree

  -8 votes

  I disagree
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  Meetings

  All meetings should be scheduled for 50 minutes. Meetings will be shorter and more focused. Meetings will start on time. No more stragglers ...more »

  All meetings should be scheduled for 50 minutes.

  Meetings will be shorter and more focused.

  Meetings will start on time. No more stragglers who had to wrap up another meeting.

  Valuable time reallocated to other needs.

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  1 comment

  Submitted by jsjrisk 4 months ago

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