By Al Vanderberg
The Experience Committee had a busy and productive year in 2019. I’ll mention just a couple of highlights:
- Ed Koryzno was selected as the 2019 Patriarche Award winner for his distinguished career in Ypsilanti, Grand Haven, and Fenton. He accepted the award at the Fall MML Convention.
- Six new MME Awards were created and three were conferred at the recent MME Winter Institute in Gaylord.
Community Leader Award – Frank Peterson, Muskegon City Manager
Nominated for leading Muskegon through very difficult fire service changes and adoption of a radically different 5-year contract with the fire union.
Mentoring Award – Dan Coss, DeWitt City Administrator
Nominated for mentorship of a manager located within his region and also for mentoring the director of a regionally shared facility.
Innovation Award – Pat McGinnis, Grand Haven City Manager
Nominated for leadership of the “Forever Grand Haven” perpetual 3 mill allocation for infrastructure.
As we look to the future, we plan to work hard to help make MME an increasingly attractive and friendly place for new members. .
We plan to become far more active in nominating MME members for ICMA awards as we have had very few such nominations in past years. The committee will work on producing an updated association history with the target date of the 2022 MME Winter Institute for completion and will contemplate establishing a more formal ambassador program to help new members feel welcomed and quickly a part of our association.
We welcome your suggestions and participation as we pitch in to continue and improve upon MME’s long history of excellence!
Al Vanderberg
Chair, Experience Committee: Administrator, Ottawa County