Dear FCCMA Members,
I am enthusiastic about re-energizing the Association’s focus on the next generation of talent. I began my career through an unpaid summer internship in the City of DeLand Human Resources Department, which paved the way for my professional journey as I know it. Because of this, I hope to strengthen our profession and the Association’s support of student chapters and internship programs, creating pathways for success for the incoming talent who will assume leadership roles as managers retire.
Internships build great leaders through:
- Hands-on Experience: Interns learn to apply their academic knowledge and gain industry understanding, that will enhance their leadership potential.
- Skill Development: Internships develop essential leadership competencies like communication, strategy, people management, teamwork, problem-solving and decision-making.
- Exposure to Diverse Roles: Internships foster a holistic understanding of organizational dynamics.
- Mentorship and Networking: Interns receive guidance and industry insight from experienced professionals while building their professional networks.
- Self-Reflection and Growth: Internships encourage self-awareness, enabling interns to identify areas of strength and improvement early on in their careers.
I encourage you all to implement internship programs within your jurisdictions as these programs serve as invaluable opportunities for talent development, fostering a skilled workforce and nurturing future leaders in their respective industries.
If you are looking for some help on getting started or looking to see how your existing program can be improved, FCCMA has a useful internship toolkit that can be found by going here and then clicking on the internship toolkit icon.
I would also like to encourage our members to reach out to local ICMA student chapters and introduce yourself to the students. I am a professional liaison to the UCF ICMA student chapter and it is a great way to show the next generation that you are interested in their professional journey and enhance that connection between the students and FCCMA. A list of current ICMA student chapters can be found by going here and then clicking find a student chapter.
Adding onto this next-generation effort, I would like to draw attention to the Next Gen Pipeline Task Force. Tracy Miller has agreed to lead this effort. If you are passionate about this topic, no matter what stage of your career you are in, please get in touch with Carol Russell at crussell@flcities.com and let her know you’d like to join Tracy in this endeavor.
Mike
