Message from the Cal-ICMA President
Greetings to all our Cal-ICMA Members and Members of our Affiliate Organizations!
Cal-ICMA had an exciting kick-off for the new year for Cal-ICMA. On Tuesday, February 7, the Cal-ICMA Board held its first, possibly ever, strategic planning retreat. We had some great discussion on how and why Cal-ICMA exists and where we want to go in the future.
Cal-ICMA and our parent organization, ICMA, fills us as professionals, provides us with opportunities for life-long learning, a code of ethics to stand by, and the tools and network to be the very best professionals we can be to, in turn, make our communities the very best they can be.
With that in mind, and based on your feedback from the recent survey many of you participated in, we developed a new mission statement:
To connect California professionals for the advancement of ethical and inclusive local government management.
The Board also developed three broad goals with action items and deadlines:
1. Review and Update Our Governance Structure
Update bylaws by Oct. 1 for consideration at our October board meeting in Austin, TX
Work with ICMA to update affiliate agreement by 12/31/2023
Review Cal-ICMA/CA Affiliate Agreements by February 2024
2. Prepare to Support the 2026 ICMA Annual Conference Host Committee in Long Beach
Understand what Cal-ICMA's role is by May 1, 2023
Coordinate with Affiliate Groups for ways to support Host Committee
Recruit for Host Committee Volunteers
3. Enhance our Communications and Relations
Bring together key Cal-ICMA board committees to form a 3–5-year Connections Strategy for consideration at our October board meeting in Austin, TX
Update / Revise Logo and Branding Standards
Develop a Call for Volunteers strategy
Reaching these goals is going to take a lot of work and people coming together to support the profession. So, here is my shameless plug - if you, or a member of your team, are interested in becoming more involved in the profession, we have several volunteer opportunities, and we not only need, but want you to join us. If you are interested in joining a dynamic group of dedicated local government professionals, complete this volunteer form and we will get you connected!
On Wednesday, we held our bi-annual in-person board meeting and elected our 2023-2024 President and Vice-President. Kurt Wilson of WRCOG, is now our immediate Past President, Elisa Cox from the City of Rancho Cucamonga our President, and Hazel Wetherford at the City of Dublin our Vice-President. That evening we joined together with 75 of our members and friends for our annual Cal-ICMA City Managers dinner. The food and location were amazing, and it was so good to catch up with so many of our amazing professionals!
One of the things that makes the Cal-ICMA Chapter so unique is our great relationships and partnerships with our affiliate groups, and especially with the Cal Cities City Managers Department, which provided us with the opportunity to connect last week. Within this partnership, Cal Cities fills us up with the knowledge and opportunities to coalesce for legislative issues that impact our organizations from everything ranging from the California Business Roundtable initiative, to struggles with the impacts of the Surplus Lands Act, to the many facets of the Brown Act. To that end, I would like to give a big thank you to the Cal Cities team and City Managers’ Department for a great conference in Carlsbad, and the members of Cal-ICMA that participated on panels.
I am excited for this next year for Cal-ICMA and I hope many of you join us throughout the year, through volunteering, learning together at the ICMA conferences in Long Beach and Austin, or at one of the upcoming networking events with Cal-ICMA or any of our affiliates.
All my best,
Elisa C. Cox
Assistant City Manager, Rancho Cucamonga and Cal-ICMA President