Holy moly!
Re: “Iconic devotion” (1/4/2018): Craig Johnson does a fine job of revealing the man behind the artist. David Giffey’s work at Assumption Greek Orthodox Church shows how reverence for tradition and devotion to religious faith can produce art that illuminates and inspires his fellow believers (and perhaps even some non-believers). It’s heartening to hear from someone not afraid to celebrate the mysticism, ritual and tradition at the heart of Christianity.
— Gary L. Kriewald (via email)
A report on the report
Re: “Performance review” (1/11/2018): Without some way of knowing what [Madison Police Department] staff is doing, how they impact the communities they work in, or how much time they spend doing this or that, what basis is there for things like merit-based promotions, increased staffing or staff realignments? I agree that poorly implemented annual performance reviews are useless, but that is simply a straw man to distract from the reality that you can get a better understanding of what staff are doing without “destroying” them. It’s nice to chart goals and be forward-looking and all that, but if you aren’t measuring the effects of your programs and the people conducting them, you are flying blind. You think teams review game film only to indulge in 20/20 hindsight? The fact most folks forget when trotting out the “Monday morning quarterback” metaphor is that it’s a very effective feedback process for improving future plays. MPD doesn’t like to do that — at least not in public.
— Nathan Royko Maurer (via web)
When the nonprofits I work for get county and city funding, we have to agree to fairly meticulous reporting to demonstrate impact. Why should we not expect at least the same of a city agency? Why would you NOT perform evaluations? Why would you NOT want to track performance indicators?
— Karen Reece (via web)
We can all throw in
Re: “Making a firehouse a firehome” (1/11/2017): It’s hard to believe we require our firefighters to be ready on shift to respond to emergencies without providing food. They don’t get a lunch or dinner break, and this is certainly a situation where a per diem food allowance should be provided as a part of their compensation package. Undoubtedly it would be a lengthy process to make this happen in the city of Madison, so where do I send my monetary contribution to help? I challenge others to do the same — let’s feed our brave firefighters!
— Tom Jacobs (via web)
