Every week the Harvard Press reports on the activities of the town’s many all-volunteer boards. Often it’s hard to tell the forest from the trees. But although the agenda of a board on any given week may be dominated by ongoing business matters, from appointments to expenditures, Harvard’s executive branch, the Board of Selectmen, must do what it can to make sure strategic directions spelled out in town plans are actually accomplished.
Last summer, the selectmen settled on 12 actionable goals for the 2010 fiscal year (which began July 2009 and will end in June 2010) and later presented them to the town at a special all-boards meeting in September. In the spirit of helping everyone keep their eye on the ball, the Press has developed a “scorecard” with which to track progress during the year. At least once a month we will publish an update, listing events that move a goal toward completion.
We have taken some liberties with the original document. We have flattened the goals into a single list, and although particular selectmen have been assigned to each goal, in the spirit of treating the BOS as a single executive body that acts most effectively when it acts in unison, we have omitted those assignments.
We welcome readers’ comments.