ICMA is excited to announce that the newly designed Life, Well Run website is live and is located at www.lifewellrun.org. The site’s homepage welcomes visitors with vibrant images of community life and the message: “Professional city, town, and county managers—building communities we're proud to call home."
The Life, Well Run website provides visitors a mini-civics lesson on the services that local governments provide and the role that professional managers play in delivering those services effectively, efficiently, and ethically. Visitors will learn about specific functions and tasks that managers perform, how they partner with elected officials to make good things happen, and the benefits of a professionally managed community.
Life, Well Run is an ICMA initiative to raise awareness of and appreciation for the role of professional local government managers, addressing the persistent knowledge gap that currently exists about the profession. A recent Harris Interactive poll found that only a third of citizens know that city, county, and town managers oversee the day-to-day operations of their community, and only five percent could describe what managers do or their important role in shaping a community. This lack of awareness represents a significant challenge in attracting the next generation of managers, which is vital as many current managers are nearing retirement.
The Life, Well Run website will play a key role in achieving the campaign’s goals.
As the campaign moves forward, the website will feature videos, pictures, and stories from professionally managed communities across the nation highlighting successful community projects and initiatives. Life, Well Run recently filmed "My City, My Office" videos of two of the campaign's pilot communities, San Antonio and Seguin, Texas, featuring city managers Sheryl Sculley and Doug Faseler. The videos will soon be posted on the website.
If you would like to submit your own story of a successful community project or initiative, email it to yourstory@lifewellrun.org.
For further updates on Life, Well Run, or to show your support, follow the campaign on Twitter and Facebook.