TECHNICAL COMMITTEE NEWS
Leadership & Management: the Heart of APWA’s Technical Committees Chas Jordan, MPA, PWE Assistant Public Works Director City of Largo, Florida Chair, APWA Leadership & Management Committee
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t has been my honor and privilege to serve as a member of the APWA Leadership & Management Committee (LMC) for the past four years. This year, it is even more of an honor to serve as the committee’s chair. I accept this position humbly because, having worked with this committee for the better part of a decade, I am very aware of the caliber of professional that has served in this capacity. I am also aware of the amazing things this committee has produced over its time in APWA, and I feel simply in awe to be taking the reins for the next year. You see, the LMC is more than just another Technical Committee. Do not get me wrong, every Technical Committee in APWA is incredibly valuable and provides our association with great knowledge and service, but to me, the LMC provides something else as well. It provides heart. The basis of good leadership, the quality that is exhibited in excellent management, is: Heart. That ineffable ability to connect with other people and their needs. In the LMC, our mission has been to provide our membership with the resources necessary to be the best leaders and managers they can be, elevating our entire profession to one of 4
APWA Reporter
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higher greatness. This mission has only been continuously completed because our members have put true commitment and passion into this work. It is because of the LMC that we have resources like the Public Works Administration publication, the Emerging Leaders Academy, Public Works Institutes, and much more. These resources were because our members saw that the future of our profession is bright, felt pride in being a part of public works, and then accepted the commitment of “making it better” their responsibility. In the coming year, the LMC is going to take on more lofty goals and projects that are intended to continuously shine the bright future that public works has. This includes continuing our recognition program “Recognize Your Leaders” in the Reporter with a revamped mechanism to better showcase our staff. The committee is also taking on the effort to gather data, benchmarks and standards for our members to be able to use in helping to share their story and define their needs along with our fellow local government programs like public safety and recreation. Finally, we intend to commit the next year or two helping to promote the leaders on our front lines. This means recognizing the leadership qualities needed to be effective in the
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field, and to help build programs to build leadership abilities in our more technically-proficient staff. We hope this will continue to build our bench for you in your departments, and for us together in APWA. We welcome all our 30,000+ APWA members to support these efforts, either through input, or by being a member of our Knowledge Team. The first and most important characteristic of any good leader is knowing that they don’t know everything and their value is based upon the ability to garner the human capital and knowledge that they have around them. Our LMC is committed to this ideal. We would love to have your support in making our organization and profession better. All you have to do is volunteer. The future is bright for APWA, and we on the LMC are looking forward to that future. Our minds will work, our souls will guide, but it will be our hearts that will make this year a successful one. Why? Because we are proud of public works, we are proud of APWA, and we are proud to call all of you our colleagues. Here’s to a great year! Chas Jordan can be reached at (727) 5867397 or cjordan@largo.com.