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My Fellow Clerks
First I’d like to express my sincere gratitude for the trust and support you’ve placed in my leadership! I promise to serve you all to the best of my abilities and want you to know I have GREAT EXPECTATIONS for the year ahead!
In the past 29 years of working in what I call Clerk World, I’ve seen the many ups and downs of our profession. I know some people think our job is easy, but being a municipal Clerk is not easy and some days it is downright difficult. There are moments of self-doubt when you’ve just received a screaming complaint call and you’re asking yourself “What in the world am I doing here?”
There are sleepless nights of worry wondering if something was missed and whether or not the media would be waiting at the office in the morning! Oh, and then there are those moments of being completely dumbfounded like when a resident calls you up to ask “how do I become a priest?”
Being a municipal Clerk can sometimes involve learning lessons, some of which can be quite unpleasant, as some of you have recently experienced on Election Day! From the exploding ballot pens in the City of West Allis to the failing memory stick in Ixonia to the voter who pooped on the bathroom floor up in the Village of Merten. I know I’m just scratching the surface of all the bizarre occurrences out there because we all know that Elections can come with some very bad behavior as tensions run high!
Please don’t despair, lessons like these can be extremely helpful and they are a huge opportunity for insight and growth as long as you learn the lesson and move forward with resolve to continually improve! I’ve been asked why anyone would want to be a Clerk?
I believe it is all about the Passion! Because there are those absolute “Over the Moon” moments when you have a brilliant, successful and positive impact on your community, and you know it and they know it and it is SO INCREDIBLY GOOD! So the blessing in the lesson is that you will be a much wiser and more resilient Clerk.
Thankfully, the communities I’ve worked for, have all been supportive of membership in the WMCA! They’ve seen the value of continuing education and having a large network of experienced Clerks to draw from. Clerks that have already experienced the passion and the lessons. Clerks who’ve answered my surveys, taken my calls and shared with me the tough lessons they learned along the way so I wouldn’t have to.
Isn’t that truly, the greatest thing about membership in our association? The shared connection we have to each other! It means that while we are sometimes or all the time, alone in our offices, we are never alone in facing the next crisis. We are never alone when we are overwhelmed and have no clue where to begin! We are never alone when we’ve had our worst day, week, month or year!
Because WMCA is not ONLY about education and mentoring! We are an association of professionals. You are “my people” and I am “your people!” We are the people who truly understand the struggles of being a municipal Clerk, the ones celebrating our wins, mourning our losses, sharing our wisdom and experiences, supporting and working tirelessly to raise our profession up. I invite you all to join me in embracing our association with your talents and utilizing all of the benefits that membership has to offer. And please, don’t keep it a secret! Tell everyone! Reach out to neighboring municipalities and invite those non-member Clerks to a meeting.
Yes, we do have great expectations for the coming year and we are moving forward with positive attitudes, resiliency, determination and deliberate intentions for growth and improvement in how we do what we do through inspiration, education, professionalism and good old fashion, roll up your sleeves, “clerk work”.
In closing, I’d like to share the inspirational thoughts of award winning author LR Knost who for me has perfectly described my life personally and professionally and I bet you will relate as well:
Kelly Michaels WCMC/CMC
President, Wisconsin Municipal Clerks Association
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