Scheduling Best Practices

Governors show up, for the ribbon cutting of a major project, the school visit in a rural area, the community group meeting, the list is endless. Turning that endless list into a workable calendar falls to the schedulers who manage a governor's time behind the scenes. NGA recently brought together executive assistants and schedulers from governors' offices nationwide to compare notes on the systems and judgment calls that make it possible to say yes as often as they can.

A few themes emerged. First, no one has found a perfect tool. Most offices stitch together general-purpose software, such as Google Suite, Excel, or form builders, rather than anything built specifically for scheduling. A few are getting creative: one office has built AI-powered workflows that automatically send status updates and route delegation requests, cutting down significantly on manual follow-up.

Structure tends to beat improvisation. A common rhythm came up again and again: a request arrives through an intake form, becomes a calendar hold, gets confirmed roughly two weeks out, and is removed if declined. Big, known commitments like the State of the State address, annual travel, and holiday events get locked in months ahead, with everything else scheduled around them. One idea stood out as a favorite: long-range planning calendars. One office described a year-ahead calendar the governor personally reviews and annotates by hand, surfacing family commitments and conflicts long before they'd otherwise come up. Color-coding and labeling, a loose "FYI" versus a firm hold, can help the governor scan the schedule quickly.

Decision-making rarely rests on one person. Across nearly every office, schedulers and chiefs of staff pre-filter requests, with governors weighing in directly on the harder calls, particularly anything involving travel or family time. The group also discussed transition: how should offices prepare records for a change in administration? NGA will be holding a future call to discuss.

Ultimately, the biggest value was the exchange itself. Offices left with new ideas to try, and new connections to reach out to for support.