President’s Report

“I’ve never met anybody from South Dakota before!” That is the phrase I heard a lot when I introduced myself to fellow attendees at a recent National League of Cities (NLC) conference in Washington, DC. It was funny because, aren’t we ALL from somewhere?? My philosophy has always been—you make your community what YOU want it to be!

The conference was a tremendous opportunity for municipal leaders (over 2,000 attendees) to network and learn about various topics that will help guide us in making our communities and our state a better place to live.

Several years ago, I attended a national finance officer’s convention in Seattle, Washington. That conference as well as this one in Washington puts all our small cities in perspective when we say small. It is hard to feel we are on an even playing field with issues when Auburn, WA (population 75,000) and Gaithersburg, MD (population 60,000) consider themselves “small.”

I was invited to participate in a work session called “The White House Summit.” It was held in the Eisenhower Executive Building located within the White House complex. There were three topics and I chose “Financing Water/Wastewater Projects.” I thought I would be part of a large group in attendance. (1,000 people, maybe??) But, this particular summit had LESS than 100 people! My breakout session found me at a table with 20 people from across the country. We all had one thing in common. That was to understand the need for infrastructure financing for our future water and sewer projects. I was in awe of being included in this small group of professionals. Quite humbling to say the least.

Meri Jo Anderson, Jeanne Duchscher, and Tim Reed attended the National League of Cities’ Congressional City Conference in Washington, DC in March. South Dakota was well represented at this conference. As you can see by the photo, besides myself; Meri Jo Anderson, Finance Officer for the City of New Underwood and Vice-President of the SDML and Tim Reed, Mayor of Brookings were in attendance as well. We would like to thank Senator John Thune and Senator Mike Rounds for meeting with us about issues important to South Dakota. We were disappointed that the House of Representatives was not in session while we were there, which made us miss seeing Congresswoman Kristi Noem.

I believe we all came away from the conference with a deeper understanding of the challenges facing municipalities today and also we came home with a greater appreciation of saying, “We are from SOUTH DAKOTA!”

Until next month:“Leadership is not just about what you do but what you can inspire, encourage and empower others to do.” — Jon Gordon

Jeanne Duchscher President