Pat’s Peace July 2023
Well the hard part is over – picking an alliterative name for the monthly article! You will have to check the spelling each month to see where the article is headed. This month I am more at “peace” as we head into summer vacations and many outdoor activities that bring us joy and happiness. I hope that each of you are also taking some time to relax and reflect as budgets are mostly behind us (come on Commonwealth), schools are on break giving all of us some traffic relief, there seems to be festivals and events going on everywhere and if none of that helps, check out the VLGMA inspirational songs playlist from the summer conference .
In what may become a monthly tradition, this month I want to give a “Pat-on-the-Back” to David Conmy and Vivian Seay for serving as co-chairs of the VLGMA summer conference. Along with the leadership of India Adams-Jacob (as Third Vice-President), we had an excellent conference with good speakers, sessions and sponsors. Thanks to each of you for taking on this responsibility and doing a fantastic job for the association. If you missed us in Virginia Beach, you need to get Roanoke and Virginia Beach on your calendars for this fiscal year.
As I noted at the business meeting, our conferences are an outstanding way to give yourself a little time away from your day-to-day responsibilities and to talk to other colleagues that are experiencing the same challenges, struggles and pressures. Before I even started my position in Virginia, I was welcomed by many colleagues and invited to build relationships with peers that all wanted to help me succeed. I have found that my involvement with VLGMA and ICMA have been of tremendous value in helping me find folks that share similar experiences, are dedicated to professional growth, public service and life-long learning, and most importantly are just willing to listen.
VLGMA has given me the opportunity to learn a lot about the many places where each of you live, work and call home. What I have found is that overwhelmingly you love where your live and your dedication to public service is inspiring. Exceptions to this are often made for particular individuals (some elected but most are just residents that believe they can do your job better than you) but overall the stories that are told are about the exciting things that are happening in each of your communities. Public Service is a profession to which we can all be proud and I love hearing how you are making your jurisdictions better each and every day.
I hope that you will also share some of that dedication and pride with your association. We will be looking for members to join committees that support the strategic objectives of the association. I also encourage you to reach out to your peers, particularly those that are newly appointed, to make sure they are connected and stay that way. To me that is clearly one of the best ways to give back to the profession.
You can start with reaching out to these new members:
John Canada, Budget Director, Broward County and Town Administrator, Southwest Ranches
Jill Jefferson, Director of Planning & Zoning, Town of Woodstock
Derrick Mestler, Deputy County Administrator, County of King George
Wendy Payne, Information Technology Director, County of Charles City
I am honored to have the privilege to serve as VLGMA President this year and to work with the outstanding Board that you have elected. I encourage you to reach out to me (or any other Board Member) with any ideas or thoughts you have on how we can make your organization work better for all of us. My email is ppate@manassasva.gov.
Finally, July is National Ice Cream, Blueberry, Hot Dog, Picnic and Pickle month. I hope you get to enjoy all of these things and that this month will bring you a little Peace!