By John Shay
It has been only two months since I last drafted an article for the newsletter, but the world could not have changed more than it has since the MME E-Newsletter last appeared in March. Our personal and professional lives have been upended by the COVID-19 pandemic in ways that bring to life MME’s tagline of “Ready for Anything.”
MME is no exception to being impacted by the pandemic. The MME board made the difficult decision to accept the Professional Development Committee’s recommendation to cancel the Summer Workshop that was scheduled to be held in Frankenmuth in late July. Ongoing concerns about spreading the virus to MME members; the difficulty in planning a conference when managers are already very busy responding to the pandemic; the challenge in seeking sponsorships to help defray the cost of the conference; and the perception of managers getting away to a conference while their communities continue to struggle through the challenges of these times all played a role in the board’s decision. The Professional Development Committee will explore options to provide some type of virtual professional-development training in the future.
COVID-19 has also affected the timeline of working with Nonprofit Spot to complete the update to MME’s Strategic Plan. MME entered into a contract with Nonprofit Spot to conduct a strategic-planning process in order to update MME’s Strategic Plan. As part of this process, the MME Strategic Planning Committee has been forced to delay meeting to review the SWOT and survey results from the MME membership, and then develop high-level, long-term objectives.
The original timetable was for Nonprofit Spot to present the final strategic plan to the MME membership at the 2020 Summer Workshop. In light of the Summer Workshop being canceled, the MME board approved extending the timetable to complete the strategic plan until such time that the Strategic Planning Committee can meet and complete its work. The board’s position is that it is more important for us to present a quality strategic plan based on significant input from the membership than it is to meet an artificial deadline. With this in mind, you will be receiving a summary of the feedback that we have received from the membership as a result of the surveys and the focus groups that took place during the Winter Institute. As part of the process to develop our strategic goals and initiatives, the MME board will be seeking input from you to make sure that what we believe we heard from you is accurate.
As you may know, the MEDC, in collaboration with the MME, sent out a survey to communities in January in order to obtain feedback on the effectiveness of the Redevelopment Ready Communities (RRC) program. The results of the survey concluded that satisfaction with the RRC program is low. MEDC developed three recommendations: 1) Review Best Practices criteria and the qualification process to ensure they provide the desired benefits to communities; 2) Establish a deeper understanding of community restraints among RRC staff. The primary obstacle to successfully completing the RRC program is the lack of staff capacity at the local government level; and 3) Consider collaborative programmatic design efforts, which would involve including local governments in the process of evaluating and redesigning the RRC program. The board will form an ad-hoc committee to continue facilitating discussion with MEDC about specific steps that can be taken to improve the RRC program.
The board also approved holding the 2022 Winter Institute in Troy, so the list of upcoming conference locations will be:
| 2021 Winter Institute | Grand Rapids |
| 2021 Summer Workshop | Rochester/Auburn Hills |
| 2022 Winter Institute | Troy |
| 2022 Summer Workshop | Holland |
As we all work through these unprecedented times, MME board members will be reaching out to you to simply check in and see how you are doing. It’s during times like these that we have to lean on each other and provide whatever support we can to each other. Please don’t hesitate to reach out to me if you have any questions or concerns
John Shay
President, Michigan Municipal Executives
Deputy Administrator, Ottawa County
John Shay’s career in municipal management began in 1998 when he became village manager in Almont, located in Lapeer County. He then spent over 15 years as Ludington city manager before becoming deputy county administrator in Ottawa County in 2018. He’s been very involved with MME throughout his career by serving on various committees and is also a member of the International City/County Management Association. You may reach him at jshay@miottawa.org.