Friday, September 13, 2002

Aligning Goals for Results About forty state IT managers met today with Franklin Covey in a session designed to help the organization focus on obtaining results.  The session stressed the importance of focusing organizational resources on achieving those goals which might be considered "wildly important."  A good quote from the work session: In absence of clearly defined goals, we become strangely loyal to performing daily acts of trivia. --UNKNOWN 1:35:12 PM

State Facilities The State Building Board will meet today in Logan.  The Building Board oversees construction issues, including planning.  Their facility list is presented each year to the State Legislature who usually prepares their own list as well.  Since many facilities fell to budget cuts last year, we can expect to see many requests again this year.  Higher Ed alone has made $161 million in requests to the Board of Regents who screens the requests prior to submitting them to the Building Board.  The priority for Higher Ed this year is two new libraries for the University of Utah and Utah State University.  Both libraries will be technology centers which actually will reduce the floorspace requirement. 1:27:55 PM

State Financial Highlights I got my copy of the annual Financial Highlights document produced each year by the Division of Finance.  The document summarizes on one page the state's finances at fiscal year end.  Not much of a surplus this year and half of the small amount that there was went into the diminished Rainy Day Fund (about $2 million).  At least, the state's response to the recession of the past year has enabled us to maintain a AAA bond rating.  We are continuing to look at ways to save money, including prudent use of technology. more in the Standard Examiner 7:58:48 AM

© Copyright 2002 David Fletcher.