Welcome to Vantage Point!

Welcome to the launch of Vantage Point on the Court Leader website!  The purpose of this blog is to explore ideas, present informative perspectives and conversations about court administration, including exemplary practices, and to elaborate on the importance of administration in the rule of law around the world.  The primary author will be me, Norman Meyer.

Here’s a preview of what you should expect to see in the future:

• New entries will be posted on a schedule of up to 3 times a month.
• Guest writers will appear on specific topics to add their voices, perspectives, and experiences to the mix (and give me a break!).
• Interviews with a variety of other court experts, where I will ask questions on important topics and post their answers.
• Comments by readers are welcome (use the “leave a reply” box below), and I will do my best to reply appropriately – this should allow for a broader exchange of ideas and improve the quality of information. Insightful comments and thoughtful questions may become blog entries as well.  We all have lots to learn, and I look forward to hearing from you!
• Topics I plan on writing about include: why most employee performance evaluation systems are terrible (and what to do about it); social media in the courts; working in the state vs. federal courts in the U.S. – as well as “how do you get a job in the federal courts?”; the care and feeding of judges; are international rule of law aid projects truly effective/worthwhile?; the best things I learned in my career; what to do (and not) in starting a new job as a court administrator; the clash of open access vs. security; why are ethics not paid enough attention in the courts; why you should join and be active in court administration associations; and the folly of leadership “fads.”  I’m sure there will be lots of other great things to write about as current events bring to mind (and readers, feel free to suggest things you’d like to be covered, too).

A big inspiration for this effort is the “Thinking Out Loud” newsletter that Alex Aikman wrote for many years.  Alex wrote about timely topics that he thought others in the field should consider, and I always found his writings to be thoughtful, provocative, and helpful to me in my career.  I only hope I can do as well with this blog – thanks, Alex!

I am excited to be starting this site, and I hope it will meet your expectations in the future.  Thanks for reading, and look for new posts very soon.

Finally, I’d appreciate your sharing this blog with others via social media with the hashtag #courtleadervantagepoint, or just use the www.courtleader.net/vantage-point URL.  And, if you haven’t done so already, don’t forget to sign up at the bottom of this website’s homepage to receive (“Follow”)  e-mail notices of any new content (like posts to this blog).  The more people we can engage in the exchange of ideas, the better!

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DISCLAIMER:  The content and points of view expressed in the Vantage Point blog are solely the responsibility of Norman Meyer and guests who appear here.