Oberlin City Manager Report from ICMA Conference Day 1

Day 1 of the #ICMA Conference was a full day that wrapped up with a stirring presentation by keynote speaker John Hope Bryant.

John reminded us City Managers we are in the business of keeping small promises to the many residents of our community. And, he said, life, particularly in city management, is about hits and bunts, not homeruns. His main message was that we are not in the midst of a recession, but a reset. Accordingly, future prosperity will not look like it did in the past.

My morning began with a session on emotion intelligence and how city managers and city councils need to utilize our emotional intelligence to serve our communities. It is important for city managers to stand on our principles, but sit on our ego. As many issues become loaded with emotion, our ability to exercise self-control, with a sense of calm empathy is important to help guide our community.

The midday session was on how to make use of social networking tools to improve communication and decision-making in our communities. It is important to understand how Twitter, blogging and Facebook can be an additional tool in reaching segments of our community, but not replace traditional media and communications tools.

Tomorrow:

Kitchen Composting Collection, HR Issues for Small Communities, and more...