CARE Member Contributions to The Next Thirty Years

The Hot Sheet Evolves
Submitted by Bill Threlfall
Chabot College

In the late 1980's I attended a Chabot College administrative conference held at the Monterey Beach Resort.  It was billed as an opportunity to get away, gain perspective on issues, and collaborate to solve problems in a fresh context.  We had a great time while making a bit of progress…  

At one conference session, I suggested a tactic to address a widely recognized problem – that during that 1980's pre E-mail era, staff mailboxes were simply stuffed with flyers, announcements, and documents competing for the recipient's attention.  Observing the behavior of mailroom colleagues, I noted that most of these went unread directly into the paper recycle bin. The text of many pages was simply too dense to motivate a reader's effort.  The tactic I suggested to address this problem was to charge the Office of Instruction to select the "cream" that rose to the top each week and publish a must-read one-page sheet that highlighted what every faculty and instructional staff member needed to know.  Vicki Morrow and others liked my suggestion, and this consensus led to its implementation soon thereafter.  I even suggested the name that was adopted for the one-pager: "The Hot Sheet".   

Over time, the Hot Sheet gained heft and girth, soon running to multiple pages, adding graphic gewgaws, accepting more and more submissions, and ultimately discouraging the quick read that was originally intended.  Today, the name remains, but the document is now a multi-page color report with beautiful graphics and photos which has evolved to serve an entirely different purpose of recording and promoting the progress of the College.  By way of example, see the March, 2014 Hot Sheet here.  Soon after this issue, the "Hot Sheet" moniker was dropped, and the publication evolved into the monthly President's Report to the Board of Trustees - a different concept for a different audience.

Well done, but what's hot this week?

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