Dear Colleagues:

Hope you and yours had an outstanding holiday season and are looking forward to the new year!

To kick things off in 2018, I want to provide an update on key ICMA projects and initiatives. This is the first in a series of regular updates that will give you, our members, an inside look into ICMA’s operations. If you have any questions regarding these initiatives or any of ICMA’s activities, feel free to reach out to me at executivedirector@icma.org.

• Upcoming ICMA Board/International Committee Meeting
  Staff are hard at work planning the logistics for the upcoming ICMA Executive Board and International Regional Conference meeting, which will take place in Tel Aviv, Israel, February 12-16. The International Regional Conference is being held in conjunction with the Federation of Local Authorities in Israel’s MuniWorld2018 Conference, which will focus on key challenges and threats facing smart cities, including cybersecurity. The conference will bring local government professionals together to exchange expertise and share best practices, and ICMA board and International Committee members will participate on several panels. Attendees will also participate in an “Innovation Ecosystem Tour,” make site visits to smart-city startups, and engage in a roundtable discussion with members of ICMA’s Israeli affiliate organization.
   
• ICMA Europe
  ICMA Europe became officially registered in Slovakia on December 12, 2017. ICMA Europe, with member Peter Agh as its managing director, will focus on strengthening relationships with ICMA’s international affiliate and partner organizations and on enabling learning and information exchange globally. In addition, ICMA Europe will pursue new sources of funding by seeking EU grant funding in 2018. Staff have finalized a 2018 workplan for ICMA Europe, which will be approved by the ICMA Europe board at its first board conference call. The workplan will be shared with the ICMA board when it is finalized and approved.
   
• Crisis Response/ICMA Partnerships
  In light of several recent natural disasters, we are pursuing opportunities with FEMA, the Institute for Building Technology and Safety (IBTS) (an ICMA Strategic Partner), and other funders to provide training, technical assistance, and peer exchanges to affected areas to help them with the long-term recovery challenges. We are also exploring potential partnership opportunities with Living Cities and with the Center for Public Safety Excellence on a white paper on 21st century fire services.
   
• Envision ICMA Strategic Plan
  Staff conducted interviews and have selected a finalist to provide a software solution that will enable staff to monitor and report on ICMA’s progress toward the priorities included in the Strategic Plan. We will begin working with the firm to finalize a project plan for implementation.
   
• ICMA Program Reimagination
  To ensure that our program offerings remain current, relevant, and attractive to members, we are in the process of “reimagining” various ICMA programs, including the regional conferences (formerly the regional summits); annual conference; partners program; and Life, Well Run, to name a few.
   
• Public Policy
  ICMA’s public policy activities have been intensely focused on the tax reform debate. In addition to advocating that the tax-exempt status of municipal bonds and private activity bonds be retained, ICMA and the other Big 7 associations joined the Americans Against Double Taxation (AADT) coalition to advocate for preservation of the state and local tax (SALT) deduction. While the coalition was not successful in retaining the full SALT deduction, its efforts helped persuade Congress to cap the deduction for state and local taxes at $10,000, rather than eliminating it altogether. ICMA’s letter to Senator Hatch on the issue can be found here.
  
  Of key interest to the future of local and state government revenues is whether the Supreme Court will overturn Quill Corp. v. North Dakota (1992), which held that states cannot require retailers with no in-state physical presence to collect sales tax. It is possible that the question of marketplace fairness could be decided by the end of this term, which is June 30, 2018. More information is available in this January 22 blog post.
   
• ICMA Core Values
  When I joined ICMA as executive director, I shared with staff my vision, ideal, and goal for the association moving forward, which is to position ICMA as the “best association-based organization in the world.” We want to be recognized for innovative operations, our revenue strategies, and the quality of the services that we provide. With this as a context, ICMA’s Leadership Team held a “Leadership Advance” in November, during which staff representatives from each of ICMA’s business teams examined our organization’s internal mission and began an important conversation around ICMA’s values. This group of staff is engaging the entire organization in a process to define the value statement that will define ICMA’s organizational culture, guiding our behaviors and actions each day as we work toward that ideal.  
   
• ICMA’s Media/Public Relations Efforts
  To enhance the visibility of ICMA and the profession, we have engaged PR firm Group Gordon to work closely with ICMA’s Outreach team to develop and implement a workplan and strategies to reach our target audiences. Our goal in this process is to enhance ICMA’s current image in the marketplace, and for me to take a lead role in serving as spokesperson for the profession and the great work done by ICMA and its members. We want to more aggressively position you, our members, as local government management experts, so don’t be surprised if you receive a call/email from someone on the Group Gordon staff. I also plan to establish a presence on social media to better engage with our members on relevant and timely issues impacting local governments.
   
• National Brownfields Conference
  In partnership with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, ICMA led another successful Brownfields Conference in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, December 5-7, 2018. The conference attracted nearly 2,400 registrants and featured more than 100 exhibitors.
   
• New Resources
  You'll want to be aware of a number of valuable new resources we’ve developed recently:
  Smart Solutions: Technology Serving Communities (e-book)
  Cybersecurity: Protecting Local Government Digital Resources (report)
  Smart Communities and Data Analytics (report)
  Smart Communities: Rethinking Infrastructure (report developed with funding from Strategic Partner Siemens)
  Public-Private Partnerships (P3s): What Local Government Managers Need to Know (white paper)
  LGR: Local Government Review, December 2017 (research-based article insert)
  18 on 2018: Predictions on Local Government from 18 Experts (e-book)

I hope you've found this update to be informative. Don’t hesitate to email me your feedback (good or bad) to let me know if you find this format useful.

Sincerely,

Marc A. Ott
Executive Director
ICMA