President's Review

by Joe Garritano, Council Member, Wildwood, and MML President

Be Ready And Prepared For Success

I don’t think I’m surprising anyone to say that our world is a bit volatile right now. Events in the news can leave even the calmest of us a little rattled. As a local official, you are thinking about more than how world events affect your family or your career. You are also focused on your local community and how to best preserve the most important functions of your city, protecting citizens and working to keep your community vibrant and thriving.

Preparation can be key to your success.

One way to ensure preparedness for your community is through workforce development. We have heard a lot about how this is a priority for Missouri Governor Mike Parson, and with good reason. Without a developed workforce, a company looking to develop in your community may pull back. As you will read about in this issue’s article on Missouri’s Department of Higher Education and Workforce Development services (page 18), Missouri has more than 150,000 online job postings each week – many of these positions require some training, and Workforce Development can assist your community to get started.

The Department works to put Missourians on a path to learn, work and prosper. It assists your community with financial aid opportunities, apprenticeship programs, and work-based learning opportunities. I encourage you to learn more about their services and how they can help keep the skills of your community members finetuned.

Besides assisting your community development, it is equally important to build yourself professionally. MML offers fantastic training throughout the year, and our largest event, the MML Annual Conference, is coming up right around the corner! In addition to a keynote address that features workforce development, you will benefit from dozens of sessions providing important takeaways on topics like:

• Cybersecurity • Employee retention • Social media liability • Capital assets management • So much more!

You can learn more about the Conference and view an agenda on pages 14-17 of this issue. Be sure to register yourself and your colleagues at www.mocities.com. If you have not attended an MML annual conference before, you will quickly learn that it is an event not to be missed. Besides the excellent content, you will find valuable services from exhibitors with expertise in serving municipalities, and benefit from networking with peers from around the entire state.

Your personal training is as crucial to your city as the services you provide. Preparation occurs at many levels to achieve success in your city, and MML is a valuable resource ready to assist you throughout the year.

Thank you for the time and effort you tirelessly give to your community. I look forward to seeing you in September!

"Your personal training is as crucial to your city as the services you provide."