The ICMA Executive Board met in El Paso, Texas, February 21-24, 2013, and took the following actions: 

• Set the member registration fee for the 2013 Annual Conference in Boston/New England at $660. This price includes a base registration of $620 and the Sunday evening reception ticket of $40. This small increase over Phoenix reflects higher costs at this popular venue. Members who register online will receive a $25 discount and pay $635. The registration fee for partners will be $100 (also including the Sunday ticket). The board also raised the nonmember registration fee to $1,085 continuing the practice of a significant spread between member and nonmember fees in order to reinforce the value of belonging to ICMA. 

The board retained the complimentary Student member base registration fee and continued the special $300 discount for Affiliate members who are entry-level to mid-management local government staff. The board also continued the $200 registration discount for first-time attendees in the conference region (Northeast). 

The online conference housing bureau will open simultaneously with online conference registration on June 3. Reservations can be made online or by fax or mail using downloadable forms.

The 2013 Conference Planning Committee recommended and the board approved changing the schedule for the final day (Wednesday) of the conference to encourage more attendees to fully participate in the Celebration of Service and have the opportunity to hear the keynote speaker by accommodating their travel plans. Wednesday morning will start with the closing session followed by educational offerings that attendees can choose to participate in if their travel schedules allow.

Under an overall theme of “Revolutionary Leadership,” the conference will feature a variety of programmatic enhancements proposed by the planning committee, including more interactive room sets and presentation styles; inspirational afternoon “featured speakers”; a “learning lounge,” where small numbers of attendees can hear short presentations on focused topics; and an “experts bar” for one-on-one advice on social media, digital devices, and resumes.

The conference will take place in the Hynes Convention Center in the heart of Boston’s lively Back Bay neighborhood and within walking distance of all conference hotels.

• Approved recommendations from the Committee on Professional Conduct (CPC) to engage the membership and the ICMA Executive Board in a formal review of the ICMA Code of Ethics. Given the importance of ethics to the profession, ensuring that the Code remains relevant is an essential governance responsibility for the board. The CPC takes the lead in determining when amendments to the Code are deemed necessary. Generally, the Committee takes action to develop and propose amendments to the Code based on feedback from the membership and/or issues that arise from the ethics complaint process. There is no requirement that a formal review be periodically undertaken and as such no formal process in place.

First adopted in 1924, the tenets of the Code have been amended eight times. The last amendment, which was made to Tenet 7, was approved by the membership in 1998. The guidelines, which serve to assist members in applying the principles of the tenets, were adopted in 1972. The last change to a guideline was approved by the board in 2004. The last comprehensive review of the Code took place in the late 1980s.

The approved plan is as follows:

- Given the scope of the effort and the need to engage the membership, it is anticipated that the process will be an annual and ongoing effort focused on a few tenets and associated guidelines at a time.
- The committee will launch this effort at the 2013 regional summits framing the discussion with members around the principles and guidelines of Tenet 7. Based on ten-year trend data, political activity is the greatest source of member inquiries and ethics violations excluding illegal activity. State meetings, social media, the Knowledge Network, and a survey will be other available options for obtaining member input.
- Based on the data obtained, the committee will determine by the fall of 2013 whether the review process should be delegated to a member task force or handled by the committee. As the review process proceeds, the committee will keep the ICMA Executive Board and the membership informed on progress.

In addition, the CPC asked the Credentialing Advisory Board to provide advice on parameters for the use of the ICMA Credentialed Manager designation (ICMA-CM).

• Reviewed six-month financials through December 31, 2012. Net contribution is expected to meet the FY2013 budget of $336,000 with some business lines doing better than budget and others falling short. The mix of business lines has been crucial for ICMA to weather changes in the economy that impact various business lines at different times. In the current fiscal year, ICMA benefits from favorable variances from budgeted net contribution from International programs, Information, and Professional Development while implementing strategies to increase membership recruitment and retention, find the right pricing model for the Center for Public Safety program, invest in the new Center for Management Strategies, and develop and refine an e-publications strategy.
• Reviewed key strategic priorities for the FY2014 budget and set net asset goals for FY2014-2018. Staff provided a list of proposed priorities, which have a broad impact on the overall organization and its future. The strategic priorities are distinguished by their impacts across ICMA, the level of effort that they require, or their criticality to members and the organization. The budget document, which will be presented to the board at the May/June meeting, will include more detailed priorities and metrics that comprise the operations plan for ICMA as organized by each staff outcome team and program.

The board established a net asset goal for FY 2018 of $7,625,000. The board has established net asset target goals every five years since FY 2003 and reviews the target annually based on actual performance. In FY 2009, the board approved a net asset target calculation of $5,300,000 to be achieved by June 30, 2013. Net asset balance at the end of FY 2012 was at $5,789,386 and is expected to be in excess of $6,000,000 at the end of FY 2013. The FY 2018 target assumes an addition to net assets each year from FY 2014 to FY 2018 of $300,000 per year (1% of estimated annual revenues of $30M). Any excess over budget will be used either for investments or will be added to net assets as determined by the board.

• Reviewed preparations for the first meetings of the new Regional Nominating Committees to select nominees for the 2013 ballot for regional vice presidents. Those in the United States will meet in conjunction with the 2013 regional summits and the International Nominating Committee will convene by conference call. The board also reaffirmed its commitment to having a diverse board and discussed the current status. The 16 candidates for this year include five women, but for the second year, there are no Hispanic or African American candidates. The board is scheduled to do an assessment of diversity in the make-up of the upcoming board at every June board meeting. The results of this review will be shared with state and affiliate organizations as well as with the membership. The board’s Membership and External Committee will also take the lead on reviewing the board’s current statements on diversity and will pull together all strategies that relate to addressing ICMA’s commitment to diversity in governance and membership recruitment.

• Reviewed activities to support President Bonnie Svrcek’s initiative encouraging all ICMA members to do “Just One Thing” in 2013 to contribute to the organization and, therefore, benefit more from their memberships. Activities include a January 2013 PM magazine article, a question on the recent member survey asking members what they are likely to do, continued promotion on the ICMA website and through social media, a discussion group in the Knowledge Network, a special logo, and a bookmark as a takeaway and for inclusion in mailings such as new member packets.

• Reviewed progress on membership recruitment and retention. Since July 2012, 327 new in-service members, including 126 Full members, have joined, but there will be significant fluctuations in the net numbers in February due to the January membership drops for nonpayment. Staff are beginning to develop and implement state-by-state recruitment strategies to tailor recruitment efforts. The goal is to launch at least 15 campaigns by the end of the fiscal year.
• Conducted the annual review of financial policies and approved changes to the investment policy for endowed funds as recommended by ICMA’s investment managers.
• Selected Portland, Oregon; Sacramento, California; and San Diego, California, as the sites to visit as part of the site selection process for the 2021 Annual Conference, which will take place in the West Coast.
• Received an update on current activities related to development and implementation of the Life, Well Run Campaign. The board reviewed progress to date and heard about plans to finalize a national campaign plan by summer 2013 and establish a Life, Well Run Ideas Advisory Committee to serve as a sounding board to test ideas for member implementation at the state and/or local level. The national campaign will include Life, Well Run video templates for members to “personalize.” ICMA is committed to raising $5 million to fully implement the campaign and as of January 31, 2013, pledges and receipts totaled $1.3 million, with almost $800,000 of that amount contributed by ICMA members and state associations.
• Received a briefing on the new Center for Management Strategies from director Cheryl Hilvert. The Center for Management Strategies was officially launched at the 2012 ICMA conference and will focus on bringing leading practice research, education, and technical assistance to local government managers. The center recently signed a working agreement with the Alliance for Innovation and Arizona State University for a new and expanded business relationship for research and identification of “emerging practices” in local government management. The current research project of the partnership is on the leading practice of civic engagement. Research is underway to collect case studies and data and identify/design educational programs and identify technical assistant experts. This research is scheduled to be delivered to the center in April.

• Participated in a tour of El Paso conducted by city manager Joyce Wilson who was hired as the first city manager after this city of 650,000 adopted the council-manager government in 2004.