An Unforseen Dilemma – Finding Balance

Looking back over the conference experience one of the most perplexing challenges I faced as a first time attendee was balance related.  There are so many ways to use your time at a conference like this: networking, exploring, talking to vendors, learning, sleeping, and eating (these last two are important, too).  The balance I struggled with was of a different nature, however.

My greatest struggle was determining how best to spend my time networking.  Being new to both the profession and the ICMA circuit, I was naturally drawn to other young professionals in my age range, as we had a lot of similar hurdles to face.  Swapping stories and experiences was fun and enlightening.  Since I teach part time, I was also drawn to the crowd of students, many eager to find their first position in their government careers.  I hope these bright eyed and bushy tailed young professionals will continue to build relationships with me into the future.

At the same time, the drive to meet managers at the top of their game; people with whom to network and establish learning relationships, was also strong.  For whatever reason, I don’t know that I did the best job of balancing these competing interests.  In some cases it was the sheer intimidation of walking up to a group of managers, likely long-standing friends in the midst of conversation, and introducing myself with something more meaningful than just “hi, I’m soandso, from suchandsuch”.  As a result I spent the bulk of my “free” time at the conference with peers, no doubt an important aspect of networking at the conference.  I worry that it was at the detriment of meeting the current crop of leaders, however.  I did meet a good number of City Managers and executives whom I would feel honored to call upon for advice and leadership, but I think I walked away with fewer senior professional contacts than I should have.

I wonder how many other folks, new and old, found that they spent more time networking with peers than with mentors or potential mentees.  Next time around, I think I may organize a strategyto balance that time a bit more.

Maxwell School MPA Students Enjoy the Conference

Five MPA students from the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs of Syracuse University are attending the conference through the donations of ICMA members who are Maxwell alumni.  35 ICMA member alumni are attending the conference this year (including ICMA Executive Director Bob O’Neill).

The Maxwell School (the #1 ranked public affairs/public administration program in the USA) has produced hundreds of the most successful city managers in the profession.  These five students represent the “Next Generation” of successful Maxwell local government managers.

Immigration and Banquet

I attended the session Immigration from a Local Government Perspective yesterday.  This is certainly a pressing topic not only in our nation but internationally as well.  Although the issue has been somewhat ignored in the presidential race as of late, it is certainly something that local governments cannot ignore.  It was interesting to hear from Dr. Nadia Rubaii-Barrett about the paper she is writing on immigration and local governments; I look forward to reading it when the final draft is posted on the ICMA website.  I also enjoyed hearing from two practitioners to learn about the unique ways in which their organizations have dealt with the issue. Public administrators in all areas must find innovative ways to deal with this issue, which will certainly require creativity and the ability to reach out to residents from all walks of life.

Last night was my class’s first KU MPA alumni event. At the banquet we introduced ourselves to the graduates of the program.  It was exciting for all of us to meet so many accomplished graduates, and to experience the camaraderie that exists among graduates and supporters of the program. 

I hope that everybody is finding the conference to be an enriching experience!

Another Day

It has been a great conference so far and nothing I see on the schedule makes it looks like we will loose any momentum.

Without my wife here to share different experiences I get an opportunity to people watch and look at the city. It is neat to see managers who get out of the hotel at 6:30 am to go out for their morning run. I have noticed others pour over today’s scheduled classes to chose which they will attend over breakfast or just coffee. Yet other will race to the opening session as they just rolled out of bed. One thing that is constant is people are all different.

So are cities. Where we all have infrastrucre, people and busnesses each city operates a little differently and has its own personality.

One of the things I enjoy about these conferences is finding out about those differences ans seeing if I can have an impact back home by implementing some things I have picked up.

Posted by Pete

The Alternative Conference Experience

Beyond what some have shared about the many highlights of the conference,  I figured it might be nice to offer a smattering of discussion about the exterior environs of the conference.  In this case my subject is the City of Richmond, downtown in particular, and how it relates to the rest of us.  I think the setting of any conference has a significant impact on the overall event experience and it merits some consideration.  Few might think to comment on it, so I’m throwing out my two bits, for what they’re worth.

I’ve been trying to take every opportunity I get to walk around the community.  This included a late night run on Sunday night that culminated in me literally transitioning from a flagging jog to an all out sprint past some rather unsavory characters who were following me in a car in reverse as I passed them.  I likely asked for it.  After all, who doesn’t like an easy target at 12:20 AM on a Sunday night, exhausted from a run, alone on a deserted side street, and toting a fancy ipod.  Perhaps a bit naive on my part.  Needless to say it was a refresher in common sense.

As a city planner, I’ve kind of developed a different way of looking at my surroundings, for better or worse. Whenever I go someplace I tend to try and take stock of my environment, looking for cues of good and bad design examples.  Traveling away from my home state of California, it’s refreshing to get a look at the “other coast” with this fresh perspective.  I especially enjoy the relationship that the built environment shares with the social fabric of any given community.  I think I saw a bit of that here even just wandering about.

What has really stricken a chord with me as I wandered the City streets is the stark contrast of a City struggling to redefine itself, chock full of successes and failures in plain sight.  There are no doubt some beautiful and amazing features and resources (particularly historic) in this community, including of course the Capitol itself and also the Convention Center along with some other new buildings that have recently been completed (witness the fabulous building on 6th and Broad for example).  At the same time, walking down Grace Street this morning, I witnessed buildings undergoing renovation immediately adjacent to an equal number buildings that sat abandoned, unused, and dilapidated.  All of this I observed in the span of a 9-city block walk…something that could easily be disregarded on a shuttle bus ride.

The social fabric of the community was most evident for me as I patronized a local business on Monday morning.  I’d like to conclude this entry by mentioning briefly a very solid benefit that the ICMA Conference offers, but is not so widely discussed.  Economic Impact.  I had the distinct pleasure of dining at Perly’s (1st & Grace) for breakfast after having been referred there by a member of the conference host comittee (thanks ladies, you’re the best).  Aside from the fact that the dining experience was all around fabulous (and cheap for those on a budget who tire of continental conference fare), what really resonated with me was how warmly I was received by the owner as I checked out.  He could not say enough good things about ICMA and the conference; how his business had picked up, and how he genuinely appreciated the support.  What’s more, other “regular” customers chimed in to ask questions about how long we (ICMA) would be in town, and how fabulous it was to have us here.  This interaction speaks volumes to me on some of the external impacts that ICMA has on communities, even just through the presence of an Annual Conference.  I found the open display of gratitude refreshing, and encourage participants to extend themselves as pedestrians beyond the borders of the immediate conference grounds.

More thoughts to come…stay tuned for updates.  – Bradley

Monday with Monica

I don’t know about all of you but I am so tired today!! Yesterday was a big day.  I hit the ground running and felt that I had to do everything. No one said anything to me about pacing. I was so “on it” yesterday that I burnt out. My energy level, today, isn’t nearly what is should be or what it was yesterday.

Because of that, today was a day of listening.  It was also a day that I let myself be a little lazy and spend most of my time  talking to Managers and UNC alums that I already knew, rather than introducing myself to new people.

Advice for next year: Pace yourselves. ICMA conferences are a marathon, not a sprint!!!

What I did today

I attended part of the Right-Brained educational session, where the concepts of Daniel Pink’s A Whole New Mind were discussed in the context of local government management.

I had the opportunity to read A Whole New Mind this summer, and I have completely bought into the concepts in the book. You can read here and here, blog posts on my site, where I talk about the concepts in the book. I am a huge fan of A Whole New Mind!

I also attended part of the Blog or be Blogged session.This was a session to help non-bloggers and other technology-challenged folks understand the importance of messaging and how blogging can be beneficial to getting your jurisdiction’s message out.

The main takeaway from the session is that, as a City/County Manager, you are in a critical position to manage the message of your jursidiction. As new stories develop, and as citizens ask more questions, You can get in front of potential probelms by going ahead and sharing key information with the citizenry.

One of the speakers called blog posts propaganda, but I don’t like that term. Blogs are meant to be a way to communicate, they shoud engage citizens, and citizens should be encouraged to be a part of the discussion online. Blogs are a way to meet and greet a section of the population that don’t come to Board meetings, but often are opinionated, creative, and important to the jurisdiction.

This isn’t to say that all citizens that comment on blogs are constructive and profanity-free. There are crazies out in cyber space. Managers with blogs must have a thick skin to deal with online personalities. You cannot take it personally when someone attacks you (and not your policies)– and for goodness sakes, don’t talk back to them when they goad you.

There are some really good free hosting sites for the new blogger.  My faves are wordpress and blogger. I also refer to Men with Pens when I need some help or inspiration with my writing.

My theme during this conference, of course, has been one of networking, in hopes of making connections that will lead to jobs. In the spirit of that theme, I attended the Assistants/Early Career Professionals Luncheon today, where the City Manager of Dayton talked about his career trajectory. This gentleman has accumulated an tremendous resume in only a short time. I was impressed.

His speech mirrored a lot of what I heard yesterday during the Speed Coaching and Women’s Luncheon, and he summed it up in three bullets.

*Preparation- Being educated and competitive. He said that as a newbie, you must learn as much as you can about everything, but especially about those things that are important to the organization that you want to work with. It is important to know what you have to offer an organization- and be able to tell them.

*Planning- Plan your career. Don’t go about your career willy-nilly. He said to make strategic and purposeful job moves with the end in mind. (whatever the end is for you)  Know what you hope to gain from each job move.

*Patience-This refers to knowing when to hold ‘em and when to fold ‘em. He said that of course, it is up to you to know what you need at each step in your career. Do you want to live in an urban area or a rural area? Do you want to work for a small organization or a larger one? Does each job fit your family or life situation? Are you ready to make the next step up the job ladder? Have you stayed too long in a particular job?

These must be pretty good pieces of advice because I’ve heard it from managers all over this conference!

Day 4 – Learning A Lot More!

Sorry for the cheap rhyme in the title but it is getting late for me.

Today was a fantastic day learning about tons of things – everything from government online auctions in the exhibit hall to new developments in Viriginia but by far the start of the day with Robert Fulghum was the best start to a day!  Thanks to the Host Committee for bringing him to Richmond!!!!!!

It is amazing what one can learn (and pull out of our internal databases located between our ears) by watching experiences especially those with children, makes me glad to have two at home, which I miss dearly at this point in the conference.  Mr Fulghum reminded of how great we as managers can be making things happen with shrinking resources by taking us back to that ever exciting game of Muscial Chairs and changing the rules – instead of one person losing each time a chair is removed he challenged us to think about the game with  all the players staying in and the challenging being getting everyone a seat as each chair is removed.  In this case the chairs are the resources while the people continually adapt and make due as the resources are removed and in fact when all the chairs are gone there still is a way to succeed!

He also raised a very simple question to all of us managers: What on earth have you done?

When was the last time you heard that question and was it in a stressed or maddening tone? I would bet so.  Mr. Fulghum noted that usually this is said by a parent when their child has done something unbeliveable, which as a parent I would have to agree.  But he challenged us to think about in a different way – to think about in in terms us actually asking yourself “What on Earth have you done?”

Is it meaningful?  Is it ethical?  Is it memorable in a positive way?  Is this what you wanted?  Seems to me like a simple question with a great chance of holding major impact on the way we live our lives and complete our work!  A SIMPLY CHALLENGING question!

So . . . WHAT ON EARTH HAVE YOU DONE?

Back Home Wishin’

Today is a bummer for me because I am back home working.  I traded attending the annual conference to attend the Senior Executive Institute at Charlottsville, VA (UVA).  It was possibly the best conference I ever attended.  You need to check out the SEI booth before you come home.

I haven’t seen much on the educational sessions.  What is the one session folks are buzzing about this year?

have fun, I expect to see you all next fall in Montreal!

Larry Paine, Hillsboro, Kansas

The Segways Have Arrived!

As Ross mentioned in his earlier entry, the conference staff have 2 segways to help us get around the convention center.  Here’s a picture of Ross and one of our IT-gurus, Nat Morgan, test driving them over the weekend.

My first post – how exciting

Since I attended the “Blog or be blogged” session I feel confident to make my first post.  It has been a great beginning of the conference.  I always enjoy reconnecting with colleagues from all across the US and I’m always excited to hear how their doing, how their family is doing and how their jobs is going.  No matter where you are the issues we all face are very similar, just like Peter Agh from Slovakia said at the opening session.  So from what I learned at this afternoon’s session I need to keep this post SHORT.

With respect to getting together with colleagues let me know recommend the following places:

Bottoms Up (1700 Dock St) Great Pizza!

The Tobacco Company (1201 E Cary St,)

Richbrau Brewing Company (1214 E. Cary)

Sine Irish Pub (1327 E. Cary)

There we go, first post done.