[Partnerships] Are business partners different?

[Cathy Gannon]

Hi Claudine and "Partnership" listserv members -

Claudine's comments and questions on the list lately have gotten me to think
about business involvement in the partnerships and why it might be
different....different than our expectations anyway.  I can remember being
on different committees with business people and they often expressed
frustration that we educators more or less talked everything to death (we
thought we were encouraging participation in the decision making and
planning).  We moved meetings to early morning and to a workplace site -
that seemed to help with their impatience and got more buy in.  They weren't
interested in the networking aspect of our meetings (they were pretty
selective with whom they networked) - a real positive selling point of some
of the cp partnerships.

I would like to hear about some of the reasons you all think that business
is balking at actively participating in your partnership?  Or if you are
successful - why do you think your business partners are joining in.

Cathy