What I’m Doing: Getting ready for the first-ever ELGL STAFF RETREAT! We’re flying to cheapest August destination (Dallas, we see you) and it will be very, very hot. (Responsible fiscal management, y’all.)
What I’m Listening To: Lake Street Dive. I saw them live in June and they’ve made it into nonstop happy summer rotation.
What I’m Reading: Well, in other big news, I’ll be starting a part-time PhD this fall at NC State University (yay!) so I’m reading three books about calculus and STATA in preparation for data bootcamp (bye, summer).
What I’m Stoked About: That we just hired ELGL’s THIRD EMPLOYEE OMG YOU GUYS we are still small but so much mightier now! You’ll hear more about this later, but that’s my current #mood.
Hey y’all,
Emily here with the August monthly update on membership and programs. Don’t hesitate to find me on LinkedIn, Twitter (where I am a pitiful novice but love watching all of you and occasionally getting tagged by ELGL rockstars I’ve never met in real life), Instagram, or email.
Here we go!
Membership Update
As you may have read in last month’s report (or seen in your email during this month of transition), we made the shift to a new management software for all your membership info. It was a huge project and we’re grateful for your patience as we’ve migrated all our information, fixed errors, and been in touch with you about various issues.
The new system integrates with MailChimp, our job board, and our engagement corner. Once you log in and register (and update your profile information!) on the ELGL member portal, the email address you use for ELGL will also serve as your access to these other systems. You do have to create a separate account on ELGL Jobs and on the ELGL Engagement Corner, but once you’re done with that, your interactions should be pretty simple. Your email address also connects with our Eventbrite system so that you’ll always have member rates for events, whether you register through the portal or on our events page. You can see all these details online here, but as always, please let me know if you have any questions!
Programs Update
We launched our Innovation Cohort in June and have been busy working on developing pilot projects in two focus areas – mobility and engagement – with some amazing mentors from the ELGL network. We’ll start pilot projects in September and then begin working on capacity planning for future innovation programs within these organizations. Stay tuned for project announcements next month, and in the meantime, keep an eye out for blog posts headed your way next week from our Cohort participants!
We’ve also been continuing our Money Talks series about all things grants and we have a GREAT one scheduled for August with my favorite federal employee on the planet – Hillary Sherman, the NC Economic Development Representative for US EDA. You’ll love her. And the knowledge she’s bringing you. And all the alphabet soup words we’re going to learn together when we explore all the federal funding available to local governments and the ins-and-outs of each. It’s coming up August 14…don’t miss it!
And, a last note in programming – there’s a lot happening on the academic side, too. We’re working on an academic outreach campaign now where you can sign up to share ELGL info with your alma mater (please sign up! it would be really cool to crowdsource this!). Plus, we’re working on some fun ideas to combine my PhD research with the Diversity Dashboard and to work with our network of academic members on more research & publications…stay tuned and let me know if you are interested in participating in this type of partnership!
Your Ideas for Our Staff Retreat
We are a member-run, member-driven organization and although we are a small but mighty paid staff, we know that thousands of hours a month of the work we all do comes from you. What would you tell us at our staff retreat? What ideas do you have that you want to see ELGL tackle this year or next? What’s your advice, your idea, your encouragement, your complaint? Send them to me at emily@elgl.org and I’ll compile them for us to review next week 🙂
I’ve been doing a lot of thinking this summer about my life and my work and my passions and I have to tell y’all, working for ELGL and for all of you is the best job I have ever.had.in.my.life. And I’ve had a lot of them! Thank you for the work you’re doing, tirelessly, around the country every day, against odds no one will ever notice and in contexts where things seem impossible on a frequent basis. You inspire me every day and I’m lucky to get to spend my days at work with people like you!
Since you read to the end of this post, I figured I’d keep the tradition going and share a happy photo with you! The photo on this post is the John Butler Trio playing on the most perfect Asheville night at New Belgium Brewery. I made a New Year’s Resolution to bring live music back into my life this year and it has been EPIC. I hope you are all having lovely sunsets, happy music, and at least a little time this summer to relax and reconnect with what’s most important to you.
Emily