The Government Finance Officers Association’s first in-person conference in 2 years started in Austin, Texas on Sunday with Chief Executive Chris Morrill relating a story about how his wife and he were among the first Peace Corps workers into Ukraine in the early 1990s after The Wall came down. Dressed in the winter clothing “uniform” of the former Soviet region, locals still saw they were Americans because of the light of freedom in their eyes. Mr. Morrill then encouraged the audience to remember that serving in government is an honor that continues to put a light of freedom in people’s eyes. The close friends he made in Ukraine are dedicating life and limb to defend their still young democracy.
The ALN is honored to speak at the conference, and to be working with the Government Finance Officers Association (GFOA) to encourage policy and strategies that enable rapid deployment of strategic asset management throughout U.S. State local government – and hopefully influence other organizations. See more below in Ideas.
A virtual CAMPUS for Asset Management (AM) practitioners to provide visibility into the adoption of AM in US organizations.
People
Chris Chen is Executive Director Ontario Asset Management, known as AMONTario. The Canadian Province of Ontario has the country’s best asset management legislation in that it has consistent requirements for asset management plans, support for local governments wanting to learn more about asset management, unified approaches to information sharing and other best practices that other in government or private industry can replicate. Mr. Chen will be our guest on ALN Th@3 pm ET this Thursday 9 June. Join us as we discuss the successes and challenges Ontario faced in becoming a leader in government asset management.
Sources
Gateway to Health Communication
Thank you to Chris Silkie, Portland, Oregon’s Parks & Recreation Asset Manager for alerting us to CDC paper on more thoughtful and inclusive terms to use when referring to people. We thought “stakeholders” was good, but there is always room for improvement. CDC says. “This term can be used to reflect a power differential between groups and has a violent connotation for some tribes and tribal members. It also groups all parties into one term, despite potential differences in the way they are engaged or interact with a project or activity.” CDC recommends “interested parties/groups, implementing partners, working partners” and more: https://www.cdc.gov/healthcommunication/Preferred_Terms.html
Ideas
Check out the GFOA Conference Web Site
Ashay Prabhu, Founder of ALN Organizational Member Assetic by Brightly, is taking a leading role in the Government Finance Officers Association capital planning committee, which is forming a 3-tiered asset management policy template for its 22,500 members at the Association’s annual event this week. Mr. Prabhu is also speaking with the Michigan Infrastructure Council and ALN Executive Director, Mike Bordenaro on an asset management panel on Wednesday. Consider reviewing the program of this group that is highly influential in the roll out of strategic asset management thinking across the U.S. and Canada. https://www.gfoa.org/conference
Upcoming Events
*All Event Times – US Eastern Time Zone*
June 9, ALN Th@3 – Chris Chen, Executive Director, Asset Management Ontario. Mr. Chen will discuss the proactive approach to asset management being legislated and implemented in the Province of Ontario, Canada.