My First 150 Days…

My assumption of Executive Director duties has continued the transition commenced over the last year couple of years. It started with the creation of a Management Contract Ad Hoc (Ad Hoc) Committee in 2019 whose task was to perform an extensive assessment of our contracted executive and administrative services. The Ad Hoc review process was long and deliberate culminating in a recommendation to the Board of Directors in late 2020 to require the Executive Director to have a municipal finance background and to direct the new Executive Director to perform an assessment of the organization including an evaluation of the contracted administrative services. They also recommended a change in Executive Director duties to include more outreach to our governmental partners such as Counties, Special Districts, State Finance related agencies along with GFOA and our sister State organizations.

The Annual Conference in San Diego was extremely well organized and a great experience for CSMFO members. It was so nice to finally get together with people in person again after almost two years of dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic. There was a great deal of excitement and positive energy from CSMFO staff, conference attendees and sponsors. The Host and Program Committees did a phenomenal job in selecting an excellent conference site and developing sessions with strong curriculum relevant to issues in municipal finance today. The speakers were all extremely well qualified and did a fantastic job covering their topics.

As everyone knows, we are a volunteer organization whose business is predominately performed in our committees. So, my initial objective is to attend as many committee meetings as possible. The goal is to learn the committees’ processes, the strategic goals they are working on, and more importantly to get to know fellow members and develop relationships. As I mentioned above, I am consistently amazed at the level of engagement and fellowship in these meetings.

Earlier this month, I attended the GFOA conference in hot and sweltering Austin, Texas. On June 6th, CSMFO held its annual cocktail and hors d’oeuvres reception at the Clive Bar. It was great to see our municipal and commercial members at the event and a fun time was had by all. Thanks again to Chandler Asset Management and Springbrook Software for co-sponsoring the event with CSMFO.

I don’t want to end my comments without announcing that I am very excited to attend a chapter meeting with the South San Joaquin Chapter on June 30, 2022, at 11:30 in Clovis. This is my first chapter meeting as Executive Director and second since I attended a meeting as a member over 5 years ago. For a list of all CSMFO meetings, events, and trainings statewide and to sign up, please see the CSMFO Calendar. I encourage all to attend a chapter meeting, virtually or in-person, if you can.