'Town meeting' planned for May

Now that reengineering administrative processes has been underway at MIT for a year and some results are beginning to emerge, another `Town Meeting has been scheduled to review progress to date and expectations for the future.

The town meeting will be held Wednesday, May 3, noon-2pm in Kresge Auditorium. Joan Rice, vice president for human resources, has urged supervisors to allow flexible work scheduling wherever feasible to permit participation by as many people in the community as possible.

The meeting will begin with a brief speaking program including President Charles M. Vest; Provost Mark S. Wrighton; Senior Vice President William R. Dickson, chair of the reengineering steering committee, and Professor James D. Bruce, reengineering program manager. The moderator will be Victoria V. Sirianni, director of Physical Plant, where the first implementation of a reengineering design has taken place.

"We expect the formal speaking program can be completed within half an hour, providing ample time for questions and discussion," said Dr. Isaac M. Colbert, captain of the community involvement team planning the meeting. "We have learned from the informal brown-bag lunches that there is wide interest in what's happening in reengineering and that members of the community have good suggestions to make. The lunches have been focused on the activities of individual teams; the town meeting will give the community a chance to address the totality of the effort."

Dr. Colbert said he hopes individuals with questions will send them in advance to , indicating that they are for the town meeting. Since is an anonymous electronic mailbox, people who would like attribution for their question should include their name in the body of the message.

Written questions will also be accepted as the town meeting begins, and there will be microphones for questions and discussion at the meeting. Members of the reengineering steering committee (the vice presidents and Dean Joel S. Moses) as well as captains of the reengineering teams will also be available to respond to questions.

To encourage even more community discussion, reengineering's Community Involvement Team will host an open house Thursday, April 13, 4:30-6pm in Twenty Chimneys. Members of reengineering teams will be present for one-on-one talks with interested members of the community. Light refreshments will be served and a cash bar will be available.

A version of this article appeared in MIT Tech Talk on April 5, 1995.