Texas City Management Association – Strategic Plan 2010-2011
Developed August 5, 2010—Austin, Texas
Approved on January 21, 2011

Retreat commenced at 1:00 p.m. and concluded at 5:15 p.m. on Thursday, August 5, 2010.

TCMA Participants: TCMA President Bill Keffler, City Manager, Richardson; TCMA President-Elect David Landis, City Manager, Perryton; TCMA Vice President Burt Lumbreras, Assistant City Manager, Austin; TML Board Representative Jim Jeffers, City Manager, Nacogdoches; TCMA Region 4 Director Ted Barron, City Manager, Mesquite; TCMA Region 5 Director Jeffrey Howell, City Manager, Kilgore; TCMA Region 6 Director Christal Kliewer, Assistant City Manager, Tomball;  TCMA Region 7 Director Ed Broussard, City Manager, Hutto; TCMA Region 8 Director Kenneth Roberts, City Manager, Selma; TCMA Region 9 Director Charmelle Garrett, Deputy City Manager, Victoria; TCMA Region 10 Director Darla Jones, Assistant City Manager, South Padre Island; Director at Large Julie Johnston, City Administrator, Dickinson; and incoming TML Board Representative Randy Criswell, City Manager, Canyon.  TML staff: Kim Pendergraft and Kyle J. Jung.  Facilitator: Melanie Bolke, ShineTheLight Communications, Austin

ORGANIZATIONAL ANALYSIS RESULTS

• What’s working well?  Keep
• Is there anything that we should stop or change? Change
• Is there anything we should be doing that we aren’t? Start

For each action within the categories, Melanie helped the group decide what the impact would be if the action were successfully achieved, the amount of effort that would be required for each action, and the appropriate ownership of the project/task.  The purpose of the exercise was to create a priority grid of focus areas for 2010-2011.

What’s working/Keep

• Kyle and Kim
• Buying down conference hotel rooms
• Electronic newsletters and news articles, TCMA Management Messenger, En-Quire
• Relationship and involvement with assistants’ groups
• TCMA Annual Conference, William “King” Cole, and City Management Clinic events
• Supplemental funding for regional meetings
• Legacy Leaders program
• Training (i.e., ethics, Web-based)
• Advocacy (legislative) Committee
• Scholarships
• In-transition benefits and support
• TCMA awards program

Priority One - High Impact/Low Effort Actions (Change, Start)
Ethics Committee

• Board to give direction to Ethics Committee regarding focus areas for training and education
• Ethics Committee to present proposed plan to TCMA Board:
• training on various topics, including member responsibility and ethics complaint process
• develop a template for filing an ethics complaint
• timeline for implementation
• Consider developing an ethics presentation for the regional meetings (does not replace online training)
• Consider ethics “marketing” to media and/or Our Town, Texas.

Priority Two - High Impact/Medium Effort Actions (Change, Start)
Advocacy Committee
1) Help explain the role of the city manager in Home Rule elections (ICMA foundation can assist)

Priority Three - High Impact/High Effort Actions (Change, Start)
Advocacy Committee

• Our Town, Texas transformation
• consider marketing program:
• School House Rocks
• coloring books (Julie Johnston)
• city manager-friendly program and presentation template(s)
• depository for PowerPoint presentations and other materials
• include TCMA Code of Ethics discussion

Executive Committee

• Regional meetings and relationships strategy
• provide suggested educational topics and individual, regional training
• method of recruiting members and encouraging participation
• involve TCMA Professional Development Committee regarding education
• supplemental $1,000 for regional dinners
• Develop outreach strategy for assistants’ organizations (to accomplish what specific goals?)

Priority Four - Medium Impact/Low Effort Actions (Change, Start)
Membership Committee

• Provide recommendation to Board regarding college scholarships for TCMA members families
• criteria
• number offered
• dollar amount

Advocacy Committee

• Distribution and utilization tips for Legacy Leaders 2010 DVD (i.e., play clips during council meetings)

Priority Five - Medium Impact/Medium Effort Actions (Change, Start)
Executive Committee

• Organizational development/talent management strategy (to help Professional Development Committee)
• consider hiring an hr consultant to help develop leadership competencies and development framework
• organizational needs assessment
• evaluate who’s doing it well
• consider demographics of TCMA membership (hard copy vs. tech)
• use of social media sites for TCMA membership (i.e., corporate Facebook page, LinkedIn)
• develop a leadership training program (more than WKC and more substantial than AC)
• include mentoring and outreach
• develop and deliver workshops and Web-based training based on needs assessment results
• succession planning
• develop knowledge sharing/networking opportunities
• more involvement with assistants’ groups (get the youth out of staff jobs for a day and shadow the city manager)

Professional Development

• Work with Executive Committee regarding organizational development/talent management strategy
• Annual Conference
• improve quality of annual conference presenters (not all Board members agreed)
• consider needs assessment
• balance quality of speakers and finances
• mixture of sessions and quality of keynotes
• technical
• motivation
• case studies
• Develop Web-based training

Membership Committee

• Enhance legal support for city managers in trouble (TCG to speak to regions)
• TCMA Web site considerations
• re-design/update current site
• online depository/library of documents and terms

Note: No Medium Impact/High Effort or Low Impact Actions of any effort were identified.

OTHER ACTIONS

• ICMA issues (partnership agreement, vice president selection rotation, senior advisor, and ICMA advisory board)

LOOKING AHEAD TO 2011 RETREAT
Board members in attendance liked the placement on the schedule of the session (vs. at the end of the AC in 2009) and discussed the desire to have a longer strategy session for 2010-2011 in order to allow time to celebrate the Keep items and more discussion for the Change and Start items.

Items for Future Consideration

• Legacy Leaders DVD improvements:
• include more women/minorities
• include current/younger leaders
• have another Web-link or MP3
• Need for a printed directory
• Texas Foundation for Local Government – develop a plan for future activities and current funds