As I mentioned in a previous column, I spent many a happy day at Disneyland in my youth. To elaborate, for the better part of the last decade of his life, my paternal grandfather was employed as a Disneyland painter in the early days of the park.

Grandpa Heide passed away when I was four years old and while I don’t have many vivid memories of him, I fondly recall many family trips to Disneyland in the years after his passing. I remember our small family group waiting at the front gate of the original Magic Kingdom for Disney workers in their painting uniforms – Grandpa’s former colleagues who were on shift that day – cast members, as they’re referred to now, to arrive at the entrance and get us into the park. In hindsight I suppose that it took quite a bit of coordination by my grandmother to make this happen and while I’m quite certain that Grandpa’s co-workers had no idea of the role they played in making wonderful memories for our family, I am eternally grateful for their thoughtfulness and generosity – for their willingness to give back.

As we approach next year’s CSMFO annual conference in Anaheim, I’d like to share with you our 2020 conference mission – CSMFO Gives Back to the Community. As public servants, we play important roles in giving back to our communities.

Each day, we all play direct or supporting roles in serving the citizens, customers, ratepayers, clients, etc., of our municipal organizations. And, by extension, our commercial member partners play an important role in giving back as well, by aiding and supporting us in the effective discharge of our duties.

Certainly CSMFO also plays a role in giving back to our communities through its mission to promote excellence in government finance. Beyond CSMFO’s indirect role in public service, the 2020 annual conference host committee felt strongly that we should adopt a platform for our Anaheim conference which incorporates ways for CSMFO to facilitate giving back to the community through our conference activities. We are working to identify appropriate worthy causes as beneficiaries for our giving back, so stay tuned for additional information as we establish ways to integrate this idea into the 2020 conference.

So back to Disney. In my last message, I announced that we’d be hosting a Wednesday night late evening event for 2020 conference attendees at Disney California Adventure, and that this would be a departure from our typical Thursday evening social due to a scheduling issue with Disney. I’m pleased to announce that we’ve now confirmed after-park-hours private party access to Cars Land at DCA, including exclusive park attraction access to the high octane Radiator Springs Racers, the lively Luigi’s Rollickin’ Roadsters and the toe tapping Mater’s Junkyard Jamboree. More details to follow but for now I’m excited to be able to share with you this magical news.

To quote Walt Disney,

“I would rather entertain and hope that people learned something than educate people and hope they are entertained.”

By now your calendar should already be marked for CSMFO’s 60th Annual Conference – Yesterday, Tomorrow and Finance – taking place January 28-31, 2020 at the Disneyland Hotel. If you’re able to join us, there will be ample opportunity at our CSMFO 2020 conference to further your education, to be thoroughly entertained, but more importantly, to give back.

Steve Heide is the Finance Director, Chino Valley Fire District, Chino Hills, California.

Over 30 years of professional finance experience, having worked in government and private industry in a variety of finance positions with progressive levels of responsibility. Previous positions in public accounting, healthcare and non-profit/government.