Executive News
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09/29/1993
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STAFF UPDATE
September 29, 1993
* Calendars We've enclosed the event and training calendars for October and November.
Strategic Plan Update I'm up to DRAFT 5 of the MTAS Strategic Plan. The final plan is due to IPS by December 15 so it can be submitted to UT by January 15, 1994. I reviewed our plan briefly with the TML board of directors on Saturday, September 25. Later, we will meet with the executive commit tee of the board to review the plan in detail. Then, we will work with IPS to develop the final version of our plan and submit it. I'm not going to make copies of the interim versions but will kill a few trees to send you the final version late this year.
ICMA Conference The 79th conference of the International City County Management Association was held in Nashville from September 17 to September 22. ICMA registered 3,458 members, partners, and guests for the conference (it was the second largest conference ever - second only to Boston in 1991). Everyone liked the program and the hotel. That wasn't Tennessee's responsibility; entertainment, hospitality, and directions were. We overwhelmed the conference with all three! Dolly Parton's show on Monday night was fantastic.
We had 110 volunteers, including 17 MTAS staff working the conference in special orange shirts emblazoned with the ICMA logo and the initials TCMA for the Tennessee City Management Association. Attendees from out of state couldn't get over the "orange shirts". We met them at the airport, at their hotels, in the lobby, in front of meeting rooms and bus stops, and in all the nooks and crannies of the Opryland Hotel. Everyone knew who to ask and where to turn when they were lost or confused. At the closing ceremony on Wednesday, ICMA President Roy Pederson wore his only orange shirt in our honor.
The MTAS staff was there to serve as volunteers and to fill in the gaps if any of our other volunteers didn't show up. As it happened, only five of our 110 failed to appear. And we had four extras show up along with many offers from our regular volunteers to work additional shifts. So, some of the MTAS staff were able to attend part of the conference.
My special thanks go to: Armintha for working 12 hour days in our volunteer room, making sure that we didn't lose anyone, and "finding" Dolly Parton tickets for all her MTAS friends; Randy for marshalling the orange shirts in the hotel; JimF for taking two delegates downtown and for working with the Corps of Engineers on a tour; Becky for guiding two separate tours; Al, MikeT, Pat, MikeP, Joe, and Carol for working their shifts and then some; JimL, SharonF, and Rick for giving advice about Nashville tourist spots at the Host desk; Margaret for recruiting Tonya from UTC and doing VIP airport transportation for several international guests; Pat Davis for managing the Host desk for three days; and, finally, Ronnie for spending 12 hours on the Opryland internationally acclaimed golf course to help with the golf tournament and being unable to take one swing.
Thanks.
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