These days, such supportive and kind expressions as be safe, stay healthy, be well and take care are but a few of the sentiments finding their way into our texts, direct messages, emails, cards, and that occasionally penned letter, on a regular basis. In my experience, these and other thoughtful well wishes have become the norm in this pandemic season of our lives, and I certainly hope this in one COVID-19 by-product that is here to stay.

I find myself using similar phrases in conversations with and correspondence to those I know well and those I don’t. I also regularly hear these types of testimonials in openings and closings of numerous webinars and other virtual meetings, and this is all a good thing to be sure. I find that there is a measure of comfort in expressing these well wishes, as well as being the recipient of similar declarations. I suppose this gives me a greater sense of community.

Of course, that’s not to say that these warm welcomes and amiable good-byes are anything new, but from my perspective they now seem be more of the norm, while in the past perhaps not so consistently expressed. So this brings me to our CSMFO community.

About CSMFO, I’ve often heard testimonials from our members expressing how friendly, kind, welcoming and supportive our CSMFO member community is. And while our mission is to serve all government finance professionals through innovation, collaboration, continuing education and professional development, I believe most of our members have come to expect our outstanding educational offerings as a given.

The quality of our unmatched professional development program is on full display in our CSMFO Webinar Series, where on July 31 we heard about California’s economic outlook from Irena Asmundson, Chief Economist with the California State Department of Finance. Irena’s highly informative presentation was titled “Strategies for Managing Financial Implications Resulting from COVID-19.” With our own Michael Coleman serving as color commentator for the webinar, this was Part 8 in our ongoing COVID series.

Many thanks to the dedicated staff and volunteer members of our Career Development Committee for producing this great webinar series. Committee Chair Laura Nomura, along with Vice Chairs Pam Arends-King and Scott Catlett and Senior Advisor Mary Bradley are doing a fantastic job of ensuring our members have access to highly relevant and timely educational content.

While certainly not to be taken for granted, our members understand that they can turn to CSMFO for high quality training at low or often no additional cost beyond the bargain price of annual membership. While this is certainly not be understated, beyond our great educational programming, CSMFO is a community. Our members comprise of a collective group of dedicated and passionate public service finance professionals and affiliates.

With a collective goal of serving our communities to the best of our abilities through innovation and collaboration, CSMFO members not only have this common bond, but also this rewarding sense of community. That is, a community where we are rooting for each other’s success, where we are helping and supporting each other, where we are wishing each other to be safe and stay healthy, where, in my experience, we are not only collegial, but often times, friends. We don’t work in competition, we work in concert.

For me, I find tremendous value in not only the fantastic education that CSMFO offers, but in the greater CSMFO community. I hope you feel the same way.

May you and yours continue to be safe, stay healthy, be well, and take good care.