I serve on a city council. Not long ago, our mayor (a self-made business success) asked each council member to justify their participation in an annual governmental conference. He wrote to each of us:
"Since there is significant cost associated with this conference, I have several questions:
What benefits can we directly attribute to our attendance?
I am unaware of any correlation meeting to debrief both staff and council members as to best practices and/or cautions and concerns....
