Chamber Event

The other morning I was invited to attend a legislative breakfast hosted by the Gilbert Chamber of Commerce.  I got there early and was able to get a seat at the table where Senate President elect, Andy Biggs was sitting.  The event was small, about 30 members from different business organizations were present and Representative Farnsworth, Rep. Petersen, and Steve Yarborough.  After breakfast and an informal ice-breaking activity at our individual tables, Senator Biggs, Rep. Farnsworth, and Rep. Petersen were introduced and brought up to the front where they had the chance to mention key issues that they will be addressing this upcoming legislative session. 

After that, some of the questions/issues that were discussed informally at our individual tables were presented to the legislators.  One of the major concerns was unemployment insurance benefits and whether or not there will be some reform come January.  There were a couple people from daycare facilities that expressed their concerns will rising licensing fees.  Aparently after the legislature gave state agencies the power to set their own fees, this fee went from $75 a year to $1700 a year.  It was interesting because this is the same problem that I had addressed with my main project regarding ADEQ fees.  State agencies were given this authority to compensate for cuts to their general funds, but the fee increases do not seem to be equitable or following the premise that they can only increase fees to what the actual cost for the service is.

Internship Coming to a Close - Final Thoughts

Well this is my last post on my internship, although I am staying in the Manager’s Office through the end of next week.  It’s crazy how quickly it has gone by and how much I have learned, how many people I’ve met, and how many valuable skills I have gained.  It really didn’t hit me how much I’ve actually done until last week.  I went to an interview that my manager helped me get with the Greater Phoenix Chamber of Commerce.  I didn’t have the supervisory experience required for the position, so it kind of turned into a meeting rather than an interview, but the lady I met with pointed out that I had made quite an impact on the Town in only a few short months from what my supervisor had told her.  I don’t know if I really did, all I know is that I have worked hard and put my best effort forth in any project I have been asked to work on.  I am so grateful that I had the opportunity to work here. 

This Town has a wonderful management team and is just a really positive and motivational environment.  I am so glad that I have the chance to stay on with the Town for at least a few more months, and in a paid capacity, yay!!  I can honestly say that this has been the best experience I have had; I know that I would have a terrible time finding employment even with my MPA because I didn’t have any municipal/public sector experience.  I will miss doing the policy based work and research that I have been doing, but I can still help out with some of those type of projects if I have some free time.  I was anticipating this last post to be a sad thing for me to write because I was going to miss the people that I’ve been working with the past several months, but instead I’m happy.  You just never know what opportunities you’ll be given or that will come out of a situation.  I’ve learned that as long as you hustle, put forth your best effort, and make a good impression, good things will probably happen. 

Career Services 2 - Job Searching

There was another aspect to the webinar career services even that I attended.  This was on job searching skills and tips.  They suggested that it is never too early to start searching for jobs, which is something I never followed.  Really though, it can be a long, arduous process, from the applications themselves, to hearing back (if you’re lucky enough to hear back), and then interviewing and finally accepting a position.  Having a good resume on hand and saving it in different formats can be helpful.  As for the search itself, you should use your network of family and friends, organization websites, book of lists, and newspapers ads (which I think is pretty irrelevant in today’s world).  One good site related to municipal positions is The AZ League of Cities and Towns website.  Networking and follow-ups are extremely important.  They also mentioned to submit your resume and cover letters in PDF format, which is something I don’t do unless asked.  I am definitely going to start doing this as my standard method.  The webinar also provided suggestions/guidelines for negotiation on after you get a job offer.  All really great, helpful stuff!

Collaboration

Last week I went down to Scottsdale’s Development Services to meet with a couple of their staff regarding their permit process.  Scottsdale does things differently than most other municipalities.  They have what they call the “One Stop Shop” where they provide over the counter service to customers.  We asked some questions regarding their process and any problems that they have encountered with it.  They gave us a little tour of the back offices so that we could get a sense of the full operation.  Basically we were kind of just seeing what they do so that we can figure out what works and what doesn’t in order to help restructure Gilbert’s DS as best as possible.  It’s nice to be able to have good relationships with other municipalities so that you can have these sort of meetings in order to increase efficiency. 

I have also started researching benchmarks.  I have been tasked with creating new, appropriate benchmarks for Development Services.  This is all so different than what I had been doing, more of the real management side rather than the political/policy side.  I LOVE what I was doing w/government relations, but I’m really glad that I am getting this other experience and building new skills.

Career Services 1 - Interviewing Webinar

My schedule did not allow me to attend career service events in person, but upon exploring the career services website I found out about the many webinars that they offer.  I decided to participate in the How Do I Successfully Interview webinar.  I had never participated in a webinar, but it was really easy.  I just entered my information and joined the webinar in about a minute.  The presenters posted a couple Power Point presentations for participants to follow along with.  As a participant you could either participate by talking, or typing into a text box on the left hand side.  The content of the presentation was about what to do for an interview.  First you should research the company and then consider the type of interview that it will be.  Because of technology, there are so many different ways to conduct an interview in today’s world.  There are in-person interviews, panel interviews, phone interviews, and even Skype interviews.  

The event then talked about the importance of first impressions, including dress and overall demeanor.  A useful method to use is the S.T.A.R. method.  Situation – problem, what’s going on?  Task – the goal, what was the task at hand?  Action – what did you do to complete the goal?  Result what did you learn from the outcome?  ASU also holds mock interviews if you really want to practice your interviewing skills.  These webinars are a great way to access some of the excellent resources that the Career Center has to offer.  I have gone to some of the career fairs and personally did not find them beneficial at all to where I am at in my career/education, so to actual get some useful information relevant to my situation, was awesome!

Development Services

My supervisor was out of town last month for a week, so while she was gone I volunteered to help out some of the managers.  One of the Assistants to the Town Manager, had several projects that he needed me to do some research on.  The research was on permit turnaround times.  I compared Gilbert’s to other local and national municipalities with similar populations.  After I completed this project and gave the information to Gabe, he asked if I would be willing to look into express and expedited permit review processes, which Gilbert currently doesn’t have.  I then scheduled a meeting with someone over in Development Services to talk to present my research to them and see what they think the direction Gilbert should go is.

That week, the Director of Development Services was let go and Gabe was appointed to serve as the Interim Director.  He asked me if I wanted to stay on with the Town, but working with him in Development Services continuing to do research and analysis.  I will be working directly with the Executive Team while continuing to work on my professional development for a maximum of 6 months.  I’m really excited because I can do this part-time and still get some time home with my son.  I’m also happy to be working in a different area, gaining more experience and knowledge of some other areas of local management.

Joie de Vivre

This directly means, "joy of living" in French.  Basically, enjoying life and capturing opportunities.  I'm doing just that at the end of January.  Family vacation to France, including my son who will be 7 months old by then.  I have done a lot of international travel, so I'm pretty confident in my abilitites to plan and have a successful trip, the only thing I'm nervous about is the flight.  It's probably going to get overwhelming at times with the baby, but hopefully he'll just sleep.  We were able to use some flight benefits that expire in January to get the airline tickets for free, so that's why I just couldn't pass up this opportunity!   I hope it all goes well.  I can't wait to tell the baby all about it when he's old enough! HA!

Christmas Madness!!

Okay, so the title may be a little bit of an exaggeration, I am not really going mad, but right now is hectic!  It always is, but throwing a baby into the mix makes it a little more difficult to get everything finished.  My husband, John’s, family celebrates Christmas on Christmas Eve, so since we have the little guy and finally a house big enough, I decided to host.  I have made it clear to John that we are still opening our gifts on Christmas morning, I refuse to give up my tradition, there’s something charming to me about waking up to the snow falling on Christmas…okay no snow, but I can pretend.  Anyway, I’ve decided not to actively commence in planning this party until after the 11^th when school’s out.  I think I’ll still have enough time.  Anyone have any good ideas from either Christmas parties they’ve hosted or attended that were super fun?