Today’s Buzz is by Meredith Reynolds, Deputy City Manager for the City of Long Beach. Follow Meredith on Twitter, LinkedIn, and Instagram.
What I’m listening to: The Last Waltz, a Scorsese-filmed documentary of The Band’s farewell show at San Francisco’s Winterland Ballroom on Thanksgiving 1976. This is a staple in my household during the Thanksgiving holiday.
Where I’m traveling: To California’s wine country (Sonoma County) for some after-holiday respite.
What I’m planning: As one of the new GovLove Podcast hosts, I’m planning my upcoming GovLove Podcast guests.
The Thanksgiving holiday is over. All turkey, mashed potatoes, and stuffing leftovers have been eaten. All the fancy dishes are cleaned and put away. Now, I’m in the Long Beach Airport to get away for a week’s vacation.
As I pulled up for my early morning arrival, I had a full-on Love, Actually movie moment. You know the one – panning across the Heathrow Airport arrivals gate showing a montage of people displaying love, joy, and excitement with Hugh Grant’s voice narrating how human connection and love is not particularly dignified or newsworthy, but it’s always there. This is what I was witnessing as people dropped off and picked up loved ones traveling through LGB.
Love, really is, all around, even at the Long Beach Airport on the busiest travel day of the year. Coincidentally, the Long Beach Airport, the oldest municipal airport in California, is celebrating its 100-year anniversary this week, so just imagine how many connections – hellos, goodbyes, hugs, and last looks – occurred here over the years. These are the aspects of connection that crossed my mind while heading through airport security. (If you ever have the good fortune to fly LGB, do it! It’s the quintessential SoCal flying experience – you won’t be disappointed!)
As I waited for my flight, I pulled out my laptop and my mind wandered as I thought about what I was going to write for my last Morning Buzz for a while. You see, I recently volunteered as an ELGL Board Member, and to serve as one of the new hosts of the GovLove Podcast, things I’ve always wanted to do. But the work involved in Board duties and podcast hosting are considerably more than I have bandwidth for, so I had to decide to say no to something. (And IYKYK that I am one local govie that doesn’t often say no.) The realization I made was I was going to have to pass on writing for Morning Buzz for now.
Morning Buzz has been an outlet for writing for me since 2019, something I love to do, but don’t get much opportunity in my job outside of City Council staff reports, staff memos, or emails. So passing on writing for ELGL’s Morning Buzz to focus on GovLove hosting duties feels like goodbye.
Looking back, I’ve covered a lot of ground in my Morning Buzz posts. I’ve said things out loud that I’m proud of and that represent the best of who I strive to be as a professional. I had a special experience writing a Morning Buzz and recording a ’Growing Up City Hall’ episode with my dad, a retired city manager. I’ve had Morning Buzz as an outlet to process grief when one of my closest friends passed away far too young from breast cancer. Morning Buzz has allowed me to reflect on the silver linings that sprung out of a global pandemic, process the learning from an unexpected pandemic reassignment, and work through the impacts and consequences of taking a new job.
I’ve celebrated colleagues and friends, lifted up new local govies who make the future bright for our profession, shared the 7 local government lessons learned through 7 years of marriage, and even my dog made a cameo. And I’ve shared tips about getting organized, hiring a strong values-driven team, mentorship best practices, and valuing our teams amidst the hard work we do. These topics are all important to me and I hope you have enjoyed reading them as much as I’ve enjoyed writing them and finding entertaining GIFs to accompany the prose.
I will miss the writing, but more than that, Morning Buzz helps me feel connected, and I’m afraid to lose that. Through Morning Buzz, I’ve made many ‘pocket friends’ (coined by the great Jessica VanderKolk), a large subset of who I now know in real life.
And I’ve learned so much from the other amazing Morning Buzz contributors! Through Morning Buzz I get to learn from others who experienced something you’re going through, like burnout in the workplace, and I get to hear from others who experienced growing up city hall with parents that worked in local government. I can read hot takes on government workplace dress codes, details of the perfect drink pairings for local government meetings, and thoughtful Cyber Monday gifts for local govies. I also read inspiring pieces about uplifting the female local gov experience, what it’s like to leave (and return to) the profession when it is your calling, and perspectives of local government from different lenses, like from that of a local school board, and I enjoy seeing new sights from another perspective, like Texas city halls.
And who can resist leadership lessons from Ted Lasso or the Mandalorian, or inspiring quotes from kids movies, and Morning Buzz even offers compilations of local gov playlists, reading lists, and a list of local gov departments as baked goods. The Morning Buzz content offers new topics freshly covered by those in mid-exploration, topics that helped me think through my thoughts and feelings or problem-solve work issues, or sometimes made me laugh so hard, I cried (in my office while others were looking).
Morning Buzz, and ELGL in general, helps me feel connected. Our network of local govies is just special that way. I feel so connected to the work, my calling in the profession, and to others doing similar innovative work when I’m engaging with those in ELGL. So to help me stay connected with you, here is a list of ways you can continue to feel connected with me, and others in ELGL:
- Sign up for one for the many ELGL participatory activities: Sign up for the mug exchange or the book exchange – ELGL matches you with another local gov professional so you can exchange mugs or books and build connections, which is how we make friends and authentic connections that strengthen our network and encourage joy in public service.
- Sign up to write for Morning Buzz: Writing is a great outlet, adds a new POV to our work, and can build your professional presence online. This is a low-stakes activity that any member can sign up for, and writers create about two posts per quarter. ELGL is always looking for new contributors with unique voices, and I would be happy to coach you!
- Attend an ELGL event: Head to an ELGL Supper Club or attend the annual conference. These are great ways to meet people and connect over local gov work.
- Listen to the GovLove podcast: This is a great way to expand your learning and hear from colleagues across the country doing innovative local gov work. And if you have a great idea for GovLove, send me your ideas!
- Invite a colleague or pocket friend to become a member: For those who are not members, I highly recommend it; it’s the best professional development value in local gov, and you get access to all of this. (And remember to renew your ELGL membership so you don’t miss out!)
Thanks for reading ELGL. TTFN.
