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December
11, 2009
Dear
Julian:
In
last year's letter, I remarked on the tumultuous changes that occurred
during 2008 and the impact they would have on our economic and political
environments in 2009. I can confidently say that we will face similar
challenges and opportunities for creativity and innovation within our
communities in 2010.
For
many of us, the next three to five years will mean steeper economic
downturns, a slower-than-desired recovery, increases in service demands,
aging workforces, and the challenge of coping with even older infrastructures.
Many of you have shared with me how ICMA played a key role in helping you
deal with these issues in the past, and we continue to explore ways to help
you navigate future challenges.
We
know, for example, how difficult (politically and financially) out-of-state
travel can be these days. To help you balance the need to stay close to
home with your need for up-to-date information on the issues affecting
local government, we stepped up our e-learning offerings. More than 3,650
sites have participated in ICMA’s popular audio conference series—on such topics
as community building, ethics, performance measurement, mobile workforce
management, sustainability, and the power of storytelling—since its
inception in June 2007.
We
also launched a virtual option as part of the Montréal Annual Conference,
and several dozen of you experienced the Monday and Tuesday plenary keynotes
and more than 20 educational sessions in this format. And our new podcast series,
which provides access to high-quality interviews and discussions with
subject-matter experts on a variety of local government-related topics, is
available through the "Newsroom" section of our website or
through iTunes.
In
June 2009, we offered a virtual economic crisis
e-Debit card to Full and Affiliate Members in service to U.S. local
governments. The card provided those of you who were eligible with a credit
you could use to renew your ICMA membership or participate in one of our
many professional development opportunities. As of this writing, 729
members had redeemed a total card value of $127,000. The most popular use
of the credit so far has been for the ICMA Annual Conference; 419 of you
used the credit to reduce the cost of your Montréal conference registration
fee. If you haven’t already redeemed your credit, visit icma.org/debitcard before it expires
on June 30, 2011.
In
September , we celebrated the 85th anniversary of the adoption—in
Montréal—of the ICMA Code of Ethics, which has provided our profession with
a legacy of ethical, transparent, efficient, and innovative leadership for
more than eight decades. It is our commitment to the ICMA Code and the
principles and ideals it embodies that distinguishes us as professional
local government managers.
Which
brings me to what may be one of the most important activities ICMA will
engage in during 2010. Earlier this year, to reach a broader audience with
the message that professional management brings value to local governance,
we began working with a talented advertising agency to develop a national
Value of the Profession Campaign.
During
the concept-development phase of the campaign, we asked state, affiliate,
and assistants associations to contribute $65,000 toward supporting the
agency’s work. The response to our solicitation was tremendous—23
associations pledged or contributed a total of $60,450, just a few thousand
dollars shy of our goal. The ICMA Fund for Professional Management provided
the additional $65,000 needed to support the agency’s work. To learn more
about the campaign, visit icma.org/LifeWellRun.
The
next step is to raise the $3 to $5 million needed to bring the campaign to
life. Before reaching out to external funders, who will cover a substantial
portion of this cost, our goal is to demonstrate that most of our members
have pledged their support for the campaign. To this end, we launched an
ongoing fundraising initiative at the end of October and asked members to
earmark contributions to the Fund specifically for the campaign. You’ll be
seeing additional “asks” over the next few months.
I’m
providing a link to my travel
schedule for the first six months of 2010 and look forward to seeing
you at one or more of these events. I also look forward to hearing your
thoughts about the challenges ahead; email me at roneill@icma.org . In the meantime,
here’s wishing you and yours a happy holiday season and an outstanding (if
not challenging) 2010!
Bob
P.S.
Looking ahead: the cover story for the January/February 2010 issue of PM
(Public Management) magazine is designed to help you think strategically
about the future. "Trends to Watch in 2010" examines issues that
will affect us all and discusses the leadership role local governments can
play in forging new partnerships, creating jobs, initiating health care
reforms, addressing retirement security and pension liabilities, and
leading the way toward innovation.
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