Text and Email during board meetings

If you watch the video of yesterday's board meeting, keep your eye on Board Secretary Cheryl Caution-Parker.

Notice how many times, and for how long, she keeps her eyes down below the level of the camera on her computer. What could she be doing? Staring at her hands? At her lap? Studying the letters on her keyboard?

Reading text messages? Maybe?

Reading email on her phone? Maybe? Whose phone kept pinging during the meeting?

Use of electronic equipment, such as tablets and phones, is discouraged during board meetings, if not outright prohibited by Board Policy..

Of course, in the privacy of your home, there is no audience to catch you at it, except that evil camera of your own computer.

What is it that keeps a trustee from paying attention to incoming text messages and email? One word.

INTEGRITY.

C.S. Lewis (1898-1963) is credited with having said (or written): "Integrity is doing the right thing, even when no one is watching."

Did she think no one would notice? That no one was watching?