The Buckeye Association of School Administrators is an organization that helps local school district leaders manage their schools and provides a unified forum for advocating public education. Soon after our founding, MCR Services developed a reputation for our ability as both planners and expert schedulers. In 1995, we provided training to the construction attorneys at Bricker & Eckler. As a result of this relationship, they asked us to help their “working partner,” BASA, during the annual Association meeting.
Challenges
Technical Presentation; Diverse Crowd
The main challenge to this presentation was that it was a largely technical subject, but that the audience was diverse and not industry “insiders:”
Diverse Audience
Technical Subject Matter
12-week curriculum framework that needed to be presented during a single day
Features
Present Information to Your Audience—Where They Can Access It
The presentation had originally been developed and tested over the course of 2 years—with the validation of 200+ students
The highly technical terminology was “softened” for its intended audience
MCR Services provided many “insider” tips and tricks—useful information that would help the School Administrators get a “reach” into the construction world and the situations that they would encounter in school construction
We were able to introduce the BASA membership to Updating & Creating Schedules, Construction Claims & Reporting and other important concepts and the common terms used by Construction Professionals
Results
Providing Value to Construction Users
No one can place a finite value on this sort of educational “grounding,” but if the feed-back from this presentation is an indication, it was a resounding success for everyone concerned. Through our efforts, we may have expedited school construction here and there or eliminated or minimized some construction claims. At the very least, the school administrators were empowered enough to understand that they could at least contribute to the construction process of their school districts.
