By Christian Wuerth
It was great to see so many colleagues in Kalamazoo at this year’s Winter Institute – we ended up with 211 registered attendees, making this one of the largest Winter Institutes in recent years. I hope that those of you who attended the event found it to be educational and engaging.
I would like to thank Kalamazoo Mayor Bobby Hopewell for his warm welcome, ICMA Executive Director Marc Ott for sharing his thoughts and time with us, and City Manager Jim Ritsema and the Kalamazoo City staff for all of the help in making sure the event was a success. Downtown Kalamazoo was an ideal setting for the event and I know many of you enjoyed your time exploring all that the City has to offer. I would also like to thank our planning committee, speakers, panelists, and sponsors – all of whom made this event a great experience for those who attended.
This was the first conference to fall under the new MME Board policy which directs the Professional Development Committee to play a much larger role in planning both the Winter Institute and Summer Workshop (more on that in a future blog post) and we tried some new things this time around. For example, we issued a call for proposals for breakout sessions and received a strong response from MME members, consultants, and other municipal experts and advocates. This allowed us to include some presentations and speakers who otherwise may not have been invited to present. Judging by the initial evaluations we have received, many of you agreed casting a wider net for session ideas worked well.
In the weeks since the Winter Institute, I have heard from a number of members with respect to two particular sessions – the Strong Towns presentations from Chuck Marohn and the combined legislative update with MML, MTA, and MAC all participating. The inclusion of both of these was very much about challenging our typical approach and hopefully leading to some thoughtful dialogue. The Strong Towns approach is quite different from what many of us are used to with respect to community development and I hope Chuck’s keynote and the discussions that followed offered a unique perspective and triggered some good conversations about how the work we do as municipal executives can impact our communities for many years to come. The revised legislative update format was the brainchild of MME President Keith Van Beek, who wanted to offer a session which represented all of the types of communities in which our members serve. I think the panelists did a great job of highlighting the areas where the interests of cities, villages, townships, and counties align and the few areas where we will need ongoing dialogue to reach some common ground.
Whether it was a new idea, a new appreciation for someone else’s perspective, a new mentor, or a renewed sense of passion for the work we do, I hope that what happened in Kalamazoo does not stay in Kalamazoo and instead has gone back to our communities to help us all serve in a better fashion.
See you all this summer in Muskegon!
Christian Wuerth, cwuerth@villageofmilford.org
Village Manager, Milford
Christian Wuerth has served as the village manager of Milford since 2014. He began his career in local government as a management intern with the City of Birmingham, Michigan. Over the next six years, he moved up to other positions within the city, including management analyst and assistant to the city manager. You may reach him at 248-684-1515 or cwuerth@villageofmilford.org.