Hi Everyone
I hope you had a good bank holiday Platinum Jubilee weekend and caught some of the good weather before the rain came.
ADSO Conference
It’s good to see bookings coming in. We have a great line up of workshops and speakers. I’m delighted to announce that the Question Time Panel, expertly chaired by Peter Stanyon, Chief Executive of the AEA has the following guest line up: Sioned-Mair Richards, Lord Mayor of Sheffield; Andy Fry, Chief Executive CfGS; Karen Bradford, Chief Executive of South Kesteven District Council; and Rachel McKoy, Assistant Director of Governance and Monitoring Officer, LB Hounslow.
Make sure you book early to get the early bird rate and also book your hotel room before the 31st August to secure both your room and the discounted rate. Rooms that have been held for us will be released after this date. Full details for the conference and booking are on the website: ADSO Conference and Awards Ceremony 2022 – ADSO
IIMC Conference – Little Rock, Arkansas
Susan Biddle our Director of Training attended her first IIMC as their guest and here is her short report of her trip:
“I’m just back from attending the IIMC conference on behalf of ADSO in Little Rock, Arkansas. I see so much variety of experience between our ADSO members, but it was mind blowing to realise the scale of difference across the hundreds of municipal clerks in the US (there were around 600 participants attending the conference – and it was considered a slow year!).
Overall, I think the conference attendees experience a number of similar issues to us even if their role is different – getting to grips with a post covid world, working across a wide spectrum of responsibilities, reducing resources – doing more for less, dealing assertively with elected officials etc. The energy for learning was really high at the conference which is their main educational event where they come together, so different from our approach to training which combines the certificate and diploma for those who seek qualification, and short online courses for those who want a short-focussed input.
IIMC have just successfully created two online courses and are seeking to do more, this may offer an opportunity to collaborate beyond the buddy scheme which is accessible via their website for those who are interested in pairing up with a US or European buddy. What they don’t seem to do at the IIMC conference is look at the bigger policy and political context for their work – perhaps because there is greater influence at individual state level than from the national US government.
The role of municipal clerks in the US is not a true match for our ADSO members but it’s clear they benefit from the networking opportunities as much as our members do and have an appetite for learning from each other and sharing experiences, and they sure know how to party! I was interested to hear about a project led by SLCC around bullying and civility – it’s something that resonated with some of the IIMC membership. I know that ADSO has done a lot of work on bullying in the past with SLCC and LLG, culminating in the new local council clerk’s toolkit. This can be accessed via the ADSO website. We will however keep you informed of this new project.”
Have a good week everyone
John Lynch, ADSO Finance Director