Recently, I had the opportunity to attend the ICMA Annual Conference in Kansas City, MO through funds provided by Michigan Municipal Executives Professional Development Scholarship. The five- day conference offered both motivational speakers and educational workshops for local administrators from all over the world. The conference provided sessions on challenges in the field, learning from our peers’ mistakes, and how to be both innovative and forward thinking with limited municipal budgets. As someone new to the field and early in my career, the MME scholarship allowed me to attend a conference that provided networking opportunities, lessons to becoming an effective manager, and enhanced my passion for serving the community.
The theme of the 2016 Annual Conference was humanity towards the community and learning to be a public administrator with a human-centered approach. Most of us entered this profession to make our communities stronger, and sometimes that gets lost in late night meetings and weekend crises. Keynote speakers David Brooks, a columnist for the New York Times, and Soledad O’Brien, an award-winning news anchor, both emphasized the current lack of civic trust and need for community leaders to create a culture of change. The sessions and speakers throughout the week centered their messages on being community healers, creating a place to develop trust through engagement, and how to bridge the gap between residents and government.
Although each of the sessions shared tips on how to implement the message of humanity and listening in each of our communities, the most useful session I attended was the Design Thinking workshop. This workshop, presented by Kathy Lang from San Jose, California, challenged me to change my mindset of how an effective government provides services. We broke into groups and were each assigned a specific city. Our task was to think of ways to make the residents’ lives better. The main challenge we faced was: How could we possibly know what a city truly needs without hearing the concerns of the people who live there? Through this exercise, I learned that an effective municipality defines success as constant and consistent communication between the city manager and their council, as well as the community, to best understand the needs. An effectively run municipality shows commitment to the community through listening and truly understanding the needs of the residents on multiple levels. I hope to apply these lessons of active listening and empathizing as I continue my career as a public administrator through innovative ways of communication and engagement in my community.
I want to express my sincere gratitude to the MME for the opportunity to attend the 2016 ICMA Annual Conference. The experience was a stimulating professional development opportunity. I would recommend this conference to both municipal veterans and newcomers to municipal management. I am very grateful to the Professional Development Committee for providing me with the opportunity to attend.
Eilis A. Seide, Assistant to the City Manager
City of East Lansing
Eilis Seide came to the City of East Lansing as the assistant to the city manager in April 2016. In this role, Eilis serves as a liaison between the public and the city departments. She also represents the city manager’s office on the East Lansing Community Relations Coalition and is involved in the Neighborhood Partnerships Initiative.