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- Welcome to Voices in Local Government, an ICMA podcast. My name is Joe Supervielle.

With me is Laura Savage, Senior Program Manager at ICMA. Thanks for joining Laura.

- Thanks for the warm welcome. I'm so happy to be here today. - What is it do

specifically on the membership team here and how does that then kind of roll into

some of the programs we're going to get to that helps the ICMA audience. - Yeah, my

quick elevator pitch is always that I lift the intersectionality’s of members at

ICMA. So whether you're an intern, an assistant, or deputy,

I help infuse their membership experience and the programs and support that I

provide. - Okay, and one of the big ones coming up is a webinar series,

it's called the Essential ACAO Development Series. So that's Assistant City

Administrative Officer, depending on how you phrase the exact letters. But City County

Town Manager, or in this case, the deputies or the Assistant Managers, that's

upcoming. And just to give some details, so this is likely going to come out after

the first session of three. But everything's on demand. It's in there in the ICMA

Learning Lab. It'll be linked wherever you're listening. And the dates, session one

was just called is ACAO your next step? That was January 16th. Coming up,

new ACAO bootcamp, February 4th at 1 p .m. Eastern. And then the third session

started leading from the ACAO position scheduled for February 19th also at 1 Eastern.

So there's discounted pricing. If you get all three, there's discounted pricing for

members. But again, this is on demand. So it's okay if you're a little late coming,

it'll still be up there, but tell us about it. One of the questions is who is

this for? I think audience can do that math, but you don't necessarily have to be

in that position. We're trying to get there immediately. It's probably a little wider

than that. So who is it for? And who will benefit by taking this course?

- This ACIO essential series was put together, coordinated by members of our ACAO

committee. So the assistant chief administrative officer's committee and their goal is

really to help promote that role. So basically anyone who is an assistant or a

deputy at ICMA we refer to them as ACAOs and they really put together this three

-part series of webinars that they themselves would be interested in participating in.

And what's great is you can be an assistant or deputy and register and participate

in these webinars. You could be an assistant too, and participate as someone who is

aspiring to that next step of becoming a city or a county assistant or deputy.

And this is also great interns, department heads, you know, other individuals who are

like, "Hey, yeah, that is on my radar." And these are some great ideas and tools

that I'll walk away with to help me get to my next career. Yeah, so it sounds

like it's not just theoretical or, you know, book type learning. This is practical

knowledge from people who are doing it successfully already. You're Okay, the

presenters, I'm checking them out right now. For example, session three is Pam Hilton

from the city of Richmond Heights, Missouri. She is passionate. She loves her role

as an assistant and she is really engaged with other assistants in sharing some of

the challenges she's had and preparing the current generation of assistance and the

future generation of assistance. - And you mentioned it could be a wide range for

people aspiring this, or maybe even just considering it. It's not necessarily, hey,

I'm already applying for this type of job, but it could be projecting even five, 10

years down the line for their earlier career. But you also mentioned department

heads, and that was an interesting point too, because you could be the expert on

public works or the expert on budgeting, but you might get pigeonholed into that

expertise or that role.

How does this course help the department heads think about how they're going to

transition and prepare themselves, but also be able to maybe even interview and speak

to this kind of knowledge when they're going for that spot? How does one make that

switch from I'm at the top of the field for this field, but now I'm looking for

overall leadership with the whole local government. - When I chat with folks, like

through ICMA's Coach Connect program, for example, I recommend, especially department

heads, to pursue some of these educational opportunities and what they walk away with

can help them inform their next actions, like in their strategic plan for their

career. Very, very similar to what they would be doing or are doing in their

current local government. You know, if your goal is to become an ACAO,

then some of the items that are discussed or shared can definitely become bullet

points in the action portion of your professional strategic plan.

You can pursue them, you know, conversely, this may be some sort of incentive,

you know, whether it is to go back and get your MPA, participate in some of ICMA's

other offerings and professional development opportunities and, you know, to really

learn more about what is required now and what the future is looking like to be

successful in an ACO role. And as long as we're on that topic too, I wanted to

give a quick plug. Episode 47 of this podcast was called Career Moves, Co -Workers,

and Council. This was specifically also from the ACO perspective. We'll link it

wherever you're listening or just scroll down on the feed you're on. But the guests

there were two ACOs at the time and a deputy city manager, Jeff Jenkins and

Catherine Caffery. I think she since actually moved up to become the city manager.

So that's another example of career progression, but they had a lot of good insight.

And again, real -world situations, not just, oh, this is the best case, how it works

and what I learned, but they talked about some of the struggles and the adjustments

in that role as well. So a good topic, again, it's available, a link to wherever

you're listening, or at the ICMA Learning Lab, February 4th and February 19th are

the upcoming sessions. All right, Laura, as long as you're here too, I wanted to

touch on the She Leads Gov Virtual Forum. This is Wednesday, March 5th from 11 to

2 Eastern Time. Registration is free, courtesy of our strategic partner, Signo,

and registration will be linked wherever you're listening or you can find it on the

ICMA Learning Lab. So tell us about the forum. Yeah, we're super it for our 2025

virtual forum. The theme this year is innovate, inspire, impact.

And our goal this year is to really guide our attendees through the exploration of

the future of local government and really empower and connect to change makers who

are passionate about driving innovation in their role, whatever their role may maybe.

Is this targeting city county managers? Is this also for the assistance? The deputy

department heads, etc. Is it what kind of level? Who should be interested in who

benefits from attending this? Yeah, the forum is actually perfect for seasoned

professionals, emerging leaders, interns, and students. You know,

maybe someone who's in high school who's considering a career in local government.

It's really available for all members and all public servants.

Okay, and there's a couple of sessions and then a keynote speaker, I think

sandwiched in there as well, right? Because it's also a good time frame. It's not a

full day or week long commitment, but enough time to get real information and real

connections going. That's right. Yeah, it's three hours. The first session is

Leadership Unleashed, Hard as Your Potential, which really speaks to the wide range

of attendees who are looking to take that next step in maybe what they're doing now

to expand their role or for their future role and how they can help shape the

future of local government.

The keynote speaker, Brooke Smith is drawing from her career journey.

She's super involved in AI in local government. And so I thought, wow, what a great

fit to invite Brooke to share how she's using AI to innovate her role basically as

a city secretary and someone who's extremely involved in the procurement process. And

then We round up the day with a great session on highlighting the city of

Scottsdale, Arizona and the work that they've done to really infuse a health and

wellness program for all of their staff who, you know,

firefighters, administrators, you know, everyone in between. And I think our audience

will be really inspired to hear the improvements that they've made and how they've

impacted the well -being and health of their public servants.

- Yeah, that's interesting too. Again, it's good to hear a success story with

actual, here's the practical thing we did and what happened, not just the

hypothetical of, this sounds good on paper, but it's good if they did that and they

have some lessons learned to share. So that again is March 5th, 11th to Eastern

Lake to wherever listening Laura Savage. Thanks for joining us today. Thanks for all

your great work behind the scenes at ICMA building these programs for local

government professionals. Thanks Joe.

 

 

 

Guest Information

Laura Savage, senior program manager, ICMA
 

Topics

Assistant Chief Administrative Officer (ACAO) Development Series Overview

Career Progression and Development Opportunities

SheLeadsGov Virtual Forum Insights

Resources

The Essential ACAO Development Series: Building Your Path to Leadership Excellence

SheLeadsGov Virtual Forum | Innovate, Inspire, Impact

EP47 Local Gov Life Advice: Career Moves, Coworkers, and Council