There are extremely few professions that provide the opportunity to serve and work in a way that has a daily impact on people’s lives and a long-lasting effect upon a community. Local government management is one of those professions.

It is a privilege and an honor to be a manager. Sure, it can be difficult and stressful at times, but there are few professions that can bring so much satisfaction and so much change for the good.

It often takes time for us to realize what the management profession is or has been all about. In my opinion, it’s about serving people, making things better, and leading communities to a brighter future. There are no other professions that come even close to it.

What we, myself included, often forget is that much of our professional success is due to those who supported us. We owe so much to these communities, supporters, and others who helped us serve so well.

As we become experienced in this profession, it becomes time to pay back or “pay it forward” as popularized by a movie that highlighted this concept. It’s doing something good for someone in response to a good deed done for you.

If done right, it’s a selfless act. As Winston Churchill put it, “We make a living by what we get, we make a life by what we give.”

Getting Involved

When I was serving as a full-time city manager, I thought that I was already serving the community enough and did not have the time or the need to become more involved. That was not true.

Even as a full-time manager, you can serve the entire community by giving your effort and time to getting involved with the entities that make the community special. You, like me, probably already know managers and other staff members who seem to have the time to become more involved.

Often, it’s a meeting at breakfast, lunch, or several hours after work; maybe a weekend from time to time. It could be a food bank, a church, or a high school—whatever a person is interested in will be helpful and truly appreciated.

As an example, one of these full-time, professional managers also volunteers in the community where he resides. He sets up community affairs like festivals, often runs them, and spends hours on a few such ventures several times each year. He enjoys himself and is really appreciated for his work.

Another top staffer in the city I once worked for gave many hours serving these special groups. He is currently chairman of the community food bank. He developed many of his leadership skills in the management profession.

Retirement Opens Up More Opportunities

Within a year or so after I retired as a manager, I was appointed by the mayor of the city where I live to serve on a new board known as the Convention Facilities Authority. CFA was formed to provide funding assistance for existing venues, new construction, and expansion of facilities that directly target tourism and preserve historical artifacts in our region.

It has true stand-alone authority, with the power to levy taxes (excise tax) and to borrow money, and it operates independently of the chamber of commerce, city, and other governmental entities. Eleven members are appointed to this authority; some from the city, county, chamber, businesses, and small townships throughout the county. I was elected its first chairperson and remain in this post to this day.

Even after serving as city manager of Springfield, Ohio, for some 20 years, I never fully realized the many fabulous facilities that serve the community, including an art museum, a Frank Lloyd Wright structure, and even a first-class equine center, which is one of the few in the state.

It was astounding to me that the community had so many treasures and facilities for a region of its size. Yes, I knew these facilities existed, but rarely their honorable missions or the details of their venues and operations.

What a privilege it is to serve on such a board now. It’s an opportunity to preserve the community’s heritage, open new venues, and assist struggling businesses.

Now I will be able to pay back the community that truly supported me and my family as its manager. It is an unmatched opportunity and one that I find satisfying because it will have a positive, long-time effect on this community. It set me off into the pay-it-forward mode.

Ensuring the Profession’s Future

I taught for years at a local university that has become known for its leadership and training of future local government managers and administrators. I know many of the former students who have since entered the management profession and are doing well in their careers. I was privileged to be a part of that.

As I move on in retirement, I continue to work with the public administration faculty; not as an adjunct professor, but as an adviser on a volunteer basis. When requested, I assist with locating and training future adjunct instructors, review curriculum changes and courses, and am presently working on an MPA program-alternative that will dig deeper into a local organization to train department heads and other leadership positions.

I owe this university that trained me how to teach and gave me the opportunity to reach out to our future leaders and managers. Now I find myself making an institutional, long-lasting change in training these professionals and organizations.

Shortly after retiring, I was also appointed a senior adviser by ICMA and the Ohio City/County Management Association (OCMA). In this post, I welcome those who are newly appointed to management positions and introduce them to our state association and to ICMA. I attend as many ICMA and OCMA meetings/conferences that I can so I stay in touch with the profession and know the new managers’ needs. Things change and I’ve got to keep abreast of that.

I also focus on managers who have been recently terminated. It’s a traumatic time for many who have experienced this unfortunate occurrence. First, I let them vent their frustrations and feelings, then we move on to revising resumes, searching job opportunities, and the like.

I stay in touch with all these contacts. It is paying back to the management profession and those who run our communities today.

The Reward Is Yours

Paying it forward by volunteering in retirement is not suitable or satisfying for everyone. Whether it is traveling, exercising, or participating in a sport like golf, it’s finally your time to fully enjoy life.

But volunteering takes less time than you may think. I still have plenty of time to enjoy retirement activities. I strongly believe in the local government management system and enjoy paying back to the community. It took me years to realize this after doing only retirement-related activities. Full retirement without staying involved was not satisfying for me.

Serving these causes is rewarding, and you will have made a difference and be appreciated by the community. As Calvin Coolidge once stated, “No person was ever honored for what he received. Honor has been the reward for what he gave.”

Honor is rarely taken away and is something for which we strive. It can be the hallmark and lasting pride of our career—it would be folly to pass it up.