A few years ago, several of us here at the state, were in a meeting at another agency. In their meeting room, they had an electronic white board. With the push of a button, the contents of the white board were printed out on a built in printer.

Great idea! We should get one for our office. So, 30 days later, our electronic white board arrived. Eagerly, my co-workers removed it from the box and assembled it.

It was a free standing unit that was on wheels so that it could be move from one room to the next. It had a series of colored pockets for colored markers and a special pocket for the eraser.

It was slick except that there was no printer. There were connectors for something but a printer was never connected to it. And as far as I can tell, the thing never printed. It became just a very expensive white board that no one uses.

Zip head a few years and someone else gets the idea that we need a white board that prints. So, 30 days later, a new white board arrives. And, once again, my co-workers take it out of the box and assemble it. And, like its predecessor, it too was free standing with wheels for mobility. But, alas, no printer.

Ah, but it did have a connection for a PC. And, from the PC, the white board info could be printed on the network printer. Great!

An old laptop PC was attached and we were ready to start printing. But wait, how do you use the thing? There were no instructions. So, we played with the PC trying to get it to work. After a while, we just gave up. Eventually, the laptop disappeared. So, now we have two expensive white boards on wheels that don’t print.

I was in a meeting the other day with another state agency. They had a white board. When they got through using the white board, they pressed a button and the contents of the board were printed out at the bottom. I thought to my self that it would be handy to have a white board that printed…..