President’s Report

The siren blares, a knock at the door and then a voice that says; “Police – you are all under arrest” . During the June Board meeting, that is what Mayor Mike and the Muni Gang encountered as they were unsuccessful in solving the BANK HEIST mystery. Conversely, Arnie’s Angels were able to piece together the clues and escaped Aunt Edna’s Condo.

You may or may not be familiar with what I am talking about. As part of the team building at the summer SDML board meeting held in Baltic, the board went to Escape 605inSiouxFalls. Intheory,itsoundsveryeasy. Entera themeroomandusethecluestoescapein60minutes.The main component of a successful team is communication! You must communicate with your team members in order to find the clues and successfully escape! I believe the captionpostedbelowourpictureonEscape605Facebook page summed up our experience very well: “Mayor Mike and the Muni Gang andArnie’sAngels try for double the riches inAunt Edna’s Condo and Bank Heist. Apparently digging around in family heirlooms is easier than robbing a bank. ”

Before heading out for our team building activity, the board had a very productive meeting. A few highlights included potential constitutional changes, upcoming trainings and meetings and a preliminary agenda for the annualconference. Oneofthetopicswehadalotofgreat discussionaroundwasourDistrictMeetings. Tobehonest folks, low attendance is a concern. A number of

SDML Board Members visited Escape 605 as part of a team building exercise during their June Board meeting. Mayor Mike and the Muni Gang were not as successful as Arnie and his Angels when it came to successfully escaping! suggestions were voiced butintheend,for2019,we are going to continue with our current format.

Another such topic of conversation was construction within and near our cities. As we travelthissummer,itisnot uncommon to see those orange barrels lined along the road. Many of our cities may not display as many orange barrels, but we have plenty of activities happening. Water and sewer replacement, street projects, residential and commercial building. Of course, we hope that all of our budgeting and planning will help such projects get completed without too many complications. One thing – in my opinion probably the most importantthat makes projects successful is communication! Since we have been working and planning for some time, we take for granted what everyone else should or does. Do youholdpre-constructionmeetingswithaffectedcitizens? Are you keeping these citizens updated on progress? In Baltic, we have an upcoming street project. Besides mailing addresses, we have gathered cell phone numbers andemailaddressesfortheimpactedcitizens. Wewilluse this contact information to send out project updates.

Whether you are communicating with your teammates while trying to successfully conquer an escape room or talking with your citizens about upcoming projects that may affect them, at the end of the day communication is key!

Mike