• President's Message
• Scholarships for UW-GB
• Free Town Memberships
• Renewal Dues Emails Are Out
  
• UW-GB Clerks Institute
• IIMC Certification
• WI Municipal Records Schedule
• District Meetings
• 2018 Conference Hotel
  

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• New Job Postings
• WMCA Membership Directory

DISTRICT 4 - Montrose Town Hall, Belleville, WI on March 1.

Watch your email and the E-Newsletter for your invitation to more District meetings in the Spring.

Have a safe and warm winter!

About Us

THE WMCA MISSION:
To be the premier source for the personal empowerment of municipal clerks in Wisconsin through education, professional development, and the promotion of excellence.

Wisconsin Municipal Clerks Assoc.

Website:  wisclerks.org

I hope you all are enjoying a healthy and blessed start to 2018!  Are you still holding to your New Year Resolutions?!  The time is flying by very fast already and the February Primary is just around the corner, so I’m sure everyone is busy.

On Friday & Saturday, January 19^th & 20^th, I attended the IIMC Region VI meeting in Decorah IA along with members from Iowa and Minnesota.  What a wonderful opportunity to meet with Clerks from our region’s states and discuss all that is happening for each of us.  It was also a great opportunity to travel through several communities in Wisconsin that I don’t normally have an opportunity to get to.  Such as:  Prairie du Chien, Mount Ida, Fennimore, Edmund, Cobb, Dodgeville, Barneveld and many others.  It is such a blessing to see all the beauty our state provides in these communities!

District meetings are getting scheduled again.  Be sure to check the education section of the website on a regular basis to check out the schedule for upcoming meetings.  Even if they aren’t in your district, you can still attend them if they happen to be in a location or on a date that works better for you.  Just register for them like you would for your own District meeting.

The following Clerks have retired since our August conference.  Congratulations and best wishes to you all!!  May you enjoy your well-deserved retirement time!

Sandy Boettcher CMC, Director of Administrative Services, City of Altoona
Kathleen Goerks CMC, Clerk/Treasurer, Village of West Baraboo
Sandy Kunkel WCMC, Clerk, Town of Milton
Jan Martin WCMC, Clerk, City of Platteville
Dawn Redenius WCMC/CMC, Clerk/Treasurer, Village of Sharon
Sue Richards, Clerk, City of Sheboygan
Jane Romanowski WCPC/MMC, Clerk, Village of Pleasant Prairie
Margaret Sprague, Clerk/Treasurer, City of Fennimore
Christy Sully WCPC/MMC, Clerk/Treasurer, Village of Sister Bay
Barbara Whitmore WCMC, Clerk, Town of Genesee

As many of you are probably aware or have been watching, since mid-December the Wisconsin Election Commission and Administrator Mike Haas have been in the news a great deal.  The Senate had been discussing the possibility of taking a vote on the confirmation of Administrator Haas.  On January 23^rd the Senate went into session with this on their agenda and after several hours, voted to reject Haas’ confirmation with an 18-13 vote.  On January 24^th the WEC met and appointed Mike Haas as Interim Administrator of WEC again.  It has been the experience of many of us in working with Mike Haas and the WEC for a number of years, that he has always led with the highest levels of integrity and professionalism possible.  I am hopeful his appointment as Interim Administrator will allow us to continue our Spring Primary and Election work without interruption of the strong leadership and excellent advice we have always received from WEC.

WMCA will be holding its next Board meeting on February 9^th at Chula Vista Resort in Wisconsin Dells.  The meeting will go from 11 a.m. – 2 p.m.  Our board meetings are open to everyone and I invite you to attend and see the work we perform for you, our members. 

Some of the items to be discussed at this meeting will be work of the Board of Directors to consider possible policies, including information on succession planning for the President and Vice Presidents, should a term be interrupted; reports from various committees, like the Promotions Committee who has been working on the creation of our signature ‘cow’ pin, which we have available each year for the IIMC conference in May as well as a number of other items; and the PEC Committee is finalizing its plans for several great training sessions for our August Conference. 

I welcome all of you to attend and provide input.  It is because of you our Association exists and continues to function!  Please let us know if you plan to attend so we can prepare accordingly. Or, if you can’t attend in person you may also call in.  That information will be on the agenda for the meeting.  Also, if you have something you’d like to submit or any input or questions regarding our Association, please feel free to contact me at:  bgoeckner@outlook.com or ph. 262-957-6435.

Stay safe and warm!  I hope to see you on February 9^th at Chula Vista!

Barbara K. D. Goeckner MMC/WCPC
WMCA 2017-2018 President

* Complete every question
* You MUST send in a letter from your Supervisor, Mayor, or Board President stating their support for you to attend.  The letter must be signed.
 * Paper applications and the letter must be mailed in with a postmark no later than April 15th.  On-line applications must be completed before midnight on April 15th.
* Don’t forget to sign your applications

All members are encouraged to apply for a scholarship no matter which year of the institute you are attending. 

Click here to go to the on-line 2018 UW-GB Scholarship Application

Click here to download the paper 2018 UW-GB Scholarship Application.

REMINDER:  It is easy to fill out the scholarship application on-line - BUT DON'T FORGET TO EMAIL OR SNAIL MAIL A LETTER FROM YOUR SUPERVISOR; MAYOR OR BOARD PRESIDENT!  These letters must be signed by the supervisor, mayor or board president.

New to the Clerk's Profession:

Adopt-A-Clerk Program - We match new clerks with a seasoned clerk from the same type and size municipality. Call on them when you have a question.

The Clerk's Listserv (E-mail network) - an invaluable tool for communicating with over 600 other WMCA clerks instantly. A place to ask questions and get quick answers.

Among Our Other Membership Benefits:

Superior Clerk Education – Multi-day conferences, one-day educational events throughout the year, and we partner with the UW-GB Clerks Institute.

Scholarships – The WMCA awards over $20,000 a year in scholarships to its members to attend the Institute and our educational opportunities.

State Certification – Attaining our certification signifies that your Clerk has attended more than 175 hours of education and has the years of experience needed to be the best Clerk he or she can be.

Contact Executive Director Faith Elford in the WMCA Office at 920-568-9278 or email to  coordinator@wisclerks.org if you are not sure if the last clerk was a member.  

or click here to download the 2018 Free Membership form, fill it out and email it in to begin your year with the WMCA.

Membership Renewal emails were sent out to all members on Tuesday, January 2nd at 8:00 am.  Dues should be sent in by January 31, 2018 to avoid any interruption in services.  If you didn't see the email or accidentally deleted it, contact the WMCA Office at coordinator@wisclerks.org and Faith will send you another email.  You might also doublecheck your junk mail to see if the original email fell in there.  Make sure to tell your email system to accept that email.

I am happy to report that we are now in the final stages of getting the updated Wisconsin Municipal Records Schedule approved for use. We are asking that you please take one final look over the schedule and provide us with feedback before it goes before the Public Records Board for final approval.

There are a couple of things to keep in mind. This schedule is intended to cover basic record series that are generally seen throughout all municipal districts, or at least in the majority. If you don’t see a specific record series that you create listed, please let me know, but it might not make the final cut. The introduction does provide instruction for what you can do in those specific cases. You might also notice the absence of police/first responder and video camera schedules. That is intentional for now. We are still seeking advice from the Public Records Board legal team on how to proceed on scheduling these records because of pending legislation in the State Legislature.

This version is a draft and is not intended to be used on ANY public records at this time. Please wait until the final version is approved before applying the schedules to your records. Also, this is a draft version, and the final schedule will be set up to allow you to access each section WITHOUT having to scroll thru so many PDF pages.

We ask that you have your comments to me by March 1, to allow us time to apply any changes before we present it to the PRB for final approval. If all goes as planned, the schedule could be approved for use as early as June of this year. Many thanks to all of you who responded to the first round of review. Your time and effort was much appreciated and very helpful, and we applied a lot of your comments to the final version. Thank you in advance for any comments you make on this version. Looking forward to having this schedule approved soon!

Click here to download the latest draft of the Wisconsin Municipal Records Schedule.

Registration for the UW-Green Bay Clerks & Treasurers Institute is now open.  Click here to go to the UW-GB Institute website.

The Master Academy of Civic and Public Affairs will be held the same week as the Clerks and Treasurers Institute in 2018.  However, registration is not open for the Master Academy yet.  Watch for more information in future newsletters.  The dates will be July 16-19, 2018.  Come join our 40th celebration!

Certified Municipal Clerk (CMC)
The following individual has earned the prestigious Certified Municipal Clerk (CMC) designation from the International Institute of Municipal Clerks (IIMC):

The CMC designation program is designed to enhance the job performance of the Clerk in small and large municipalities. To earn the CMC designation, a Municipal Clerk must attend extensive education programs. The designation also requires pertinent experience in a municipality. The program prepares the participants to meet the challenges of the complex role of the municipal clerks by providing them with quality education in partnership with 47 institutions of higher learning. The program has been in existence since 1970 and has helped thousands of clerks in various municipalities.

For more information please visit the IIMC website or contact us at hq@iimc.com or 909-944-4162.