President’s Report

I just got home from the National League of Cities Conference in Nashville, TN. Your SDML sends the President and Vice President to attend this conference. It is a full packed agenda and you get to hear a lot of good speakers and visit with other cities across the nation on how they deal with different problems we all face. Poor Yvonne only made it as far as Minneapolis and was too sick to continue, we missed her steady hand! A big thank you to Laurie Gill, Pierre, the Brookings gang: Tim (he was a speaker), Patty, Scott (also a presenter), Dan, and Jael, the Sioux Falls group: David, Christine, Rex, Dean, and Jeffrey, who helped guide me through the maze of meetings. Missed you Amy, in the maze and any of the other SD representatives I did not run into. There were 4,000 attendees and without the SD people I would have felt way out of my depth, although everyone was friendly and open to me. Most of the sessions I attended were with individuals that were from other states, since you get to pick one session from several that are going on at the same time, you were all an impressive group of public servants. Your contingent from SD was, most generally, not at the same workshop, so by being spread out; we covered a lot of ground in gaining knowledge. I will do a report for my Council and the SDML Executive Board on each workshop I attended and what I learned. Now back to life in good ole New Underwood!

So much of our character is built on our failures. As long as we continue to learn from them we can continue to help our city/town to move forward. And what was a failure in the past can work in the future. I had a funny thing happen last month that I will expound on. One of our citizens came in to have me sign a petition on the Pennington County Wheel tax. She said here sign this, it is to say we are against the wheel tax. My mind told me that is not what it is for what it is for is for the wheel tax to go to a vote. But my mouth seems not to listen to my brain, so I responded with my mouth! I said we really need to think about the impact of no wheel tax on the County and how the property owners will have to fill the money gap. She said if that is how you feel don’t sign it and out the door she went slamming it, I might add with nothing gained by my not being diplomatic. No excuses, I need to remind myself I represent the City no matter what the issue, and use my brain just like I would have if it had been a city issue. I have a dresser full of stories on my mouth acting up; some of you have heard a couple of them! I encourage you to use diplomacy when dealing with your citizens. You still can get your point across on the why’s of your decisions without making a person feel resentful. The definition of diplomacy that I like is the art of dealing with people in a sensitive and effective way. I hope that you, as civic leaders, use diplomacy and more often and constructively than I do. Everyone has a view point that they feel is right and justified, it is up to us to listen to their point of view and use diplomacy to get our point and direction for the City across to them. The times I’ve used diplomacy throughout my life the results have been quite successful. I will continue to strive for diplomacy more often, as we all should.

There is another key for your key chain – DIPLOMACY!

Respectfully, Meri Jo Anderson President