Full Circle
Weekly Update #239 8/18/2024 to 8/24/2024
From presentation to implementation to thank you it all goes full circle, and this week I had a moment when the circle was closed as new ones started the cycle all over again. Before that though, let me share some of my week serving as mayor of the best small town in America.
This week, we kicked off the 2024/25 season of the Mayor’s Youth Council with a dozen area high schoolers. Of the dozen, eight are returning with four new members for this year. This will be our fifth year of educating them on how local government and city departments work. Over the years, we have done tours of the state house as well as tours of the various departments. Each year is different, and while we cover some of the same items, we always seem to add some new experiences for our young adults along the way. As with previous years, I can’t help but be energized by the group and look forward to every chance I get to both teach and learn from them.
Recently, the Tornados participated in the Special Olympics softball sectional in Evansville. With the first several innings being a back and forth game, they fell behind in the last inning. Overall, it was a good season with some wins and some losses, but everyone involved seemed to enjoy themselves and worked on developing their skills for the future. Thank you to all the volunteers who helped with softball and other sports all year long. Bigger thank you to our Special Olympic athletes who keep us volunteers coming back.
The Indiana Conference of Mayors held its annual conference this past week and gave all of Indiana’s mayors a chance to learn and grow via educational sessions and hallway conversations between sessions. With a dozen or so topics, I came home with more than a dozen ideas to explore in more detail. Sometimes, it is as simple as following up on something we already do and refreshing myself with the details of our processes. Other times, it is gathering more information about a topic and bringing it to life for Seymour. Almost always several of our city team get random text messages so they can start working before I even get back to town. Thank you to everyone involved with ICOM; because of you Indiana is better.
To close it out this week, I would like to flash back to giving a presentation at a Mayor’s Institute earlier this year. During the presentation, I shared ways that I engage with our city team and the benefits of doing so. During the ICOM conference this week, the mayor of Auburn stopped me to say thank you for the presentation and how starting it there has helped not only him and his staff, but the community as a whole. Shortly after we won an award for our Curb Appeal Program in 2022, I presented on it and have heard from dozens of cities around Indiana and beyond on how they have adopted it and made it their own like I encouraged them to do when I shared how we developed our program. These are just two reminders that what we do here in Seymour not only benefits our community but has benefited so many others along the way. From the presentations at various educational events myself and other mayors take back new ideas or tweaks on existing ideas connected to implementation and as they develop we often get thank yous and the circle repeats. Regardless of political party or community size, the mayors of Indiana have figured out how to help our communities by helping each other grow and learn. Today I will leave you with the words of John Lasseter, "The more we all help each other, the more we all benefit. So go out there. Help others."