Professional Development III

Records Ready: A City Clerk's Guide to Retention and Disposition

This presentation, led by Megan Gregor, CMC, MLIS of MG Consulting Services LLC, offers city clerks a focused, practical guide to the final stages of the records lifecycle—applying retention schedules and carrying out proper disposition. Participants will learn how to interpret and implement retention schedules, understand the legal and operational importance of timely records disposition, and apply best practices for managing both paper and electronic records. The session emphasizes strategies for legal compliance, cost savings, and organizational efficiency, ensuring agencies remain organized, accountable, and in line with state and local requirements.

Developing Effective Workplace Policies

Does your organization rely too heavily on the “institutional knowledge” of longtime employees? Do you struggle to get staff to read (or follow) your agency rules? Are your existing policies outdated? In this session, the trainer will provide you with critical tools for creating “reader-friendly” rules, such as:

Learn what policies should (and shouldn’t) include.
How to plan policies before you write them.
Editing policies for clarity & brevity.
Formatting policies so they’re easy to skim.

Purpose Driven Leadership

Understand how leadership affects your success. Assess your leadership strengths and how your leadership affects your work and decision-making. Discover what leadership is and isn't.

The Social Side of City Hall: Intro to Government & Social Media

Through social media, government agencies can engage directly with the communities we serve, exchanging dialogue, news, and information in real-time. But social media also presents unique challenges for government agencies. In this session, we will cover how to use social media at your organization, including:

Who uses different social media platforms and why
How to stay current with social media best practices and trends
Why you should incorporate customer service into your social media strategy
How to plan and create content for your channels
What to know about the First Amendment and social media public records

In addition to social media fundamentals, we will participate in interactive exercises and a Q&A session.

How Can I Help? De-escalation in the Workplace

As observations of escalated behaviors have increased, outward facing staff need fresh tools for realistic expectations, healthy boundaries, and authentic connection. In this highly interactive workshop, we look at the crucial role of purpose, keys to prevent power struggles, and what to do when you need to exit an interaction. This workshop focuses on escalation prevention, and mental health for staff and clients or patrons. This workshop does not address conflict that includes physical violence, but rather the cumulative weight of increased anger, outbursts, and anxiety in the public sector. At the end of this workshop participants will have practiced skills in the following areas:

Reconnecting with the importance of purpose in seasons of high stress.
Uncover what is at the root of most escalated interactions
Use fresh language tools to circumvent power struggles
Identify before, during, and after work practices for mental health support

Not Reinventing, but Reimagining the Wheel: ChatGPT for Municipal Clerks

In an era of rapid technological advancement, municipal clerks are increasingly tasked with finding efficient ways to manage their workloads while maintaining the high standards required for public service. This session will explore how ChatGPT can be seamlessly integrated into the daily operations of municipal offices to enhance productivity, streamline processes, and improve public engagement.

Participants will gain insights into how ChatGPT can assist with drafting documents, generating responses to common inquiries, managing schedules, and supporting complex tasks such as research and report generation. Rather than completely overhauling existing workflows, this session will focus on practical ways to incorporate AI technology, allowing clerks to leverage their existing expertise while reducing repetitive tasks.

Participants will take a deep dive into real-world applications, success stories, and a live demonstration of ChatGPT in action. This session is designed for clerks at all levels of tech proficiency, aiming to empower you with the tools and confidence needed to enhance your office's operations without losing the human touch that is so critical to public service.

Discover how ChatGPT can be your new ally in reimagining your role and making your day-to-day responsibilities more manageable and impactful.

Understanding Harassment, Discrimination, Bullying and Retaliation

Even though harassment and discrimination laws have existed for several decades, there remains a lot of confusion regarding what behaviors are and are not acceptable under those laws. This interactive workshop will provide the attendee with a comprehensive understanding of the following:

The impacts of harassment and discrimination on the work environment
The federal laws governing workplace harassment, discrimination and retaliation
The role of the supervisor in preventing harassment and retaliation
The importance of not allowing emotions that may arise in response to a complaint to generate behaviors that may be retaliatory
How to minimize and respond appropriately to complaints
Other behaviors that may trigger complaints

Effective Presentation Skills: How to Engage Your Audience and Inspire Them to Action

This one-day interactive program will equip city clerks with practical strategies to enhance their skills and confidence in presenting material to others. Participants will walk away with techniques to overcome nervousness, learn a process to organize their presentation, and discover easy to implement tips to engage their audience. Some participants will have the opportunity to practice in a comfortable setting and will receive feedback from the instructor and their peers with emphasis on what they are doing well with a few opportunities for improvement. After attending this workshop, clerks will be able to:

Overcome nervousness and distracting body language
Learn how to create a logical flow to their presentation
Control their environment and manage group interaction
Create and use visual aids
Recognize strategies to engage their audience and inspire them to action

Note: This workshop will allow some of you to practice your presentation in a safe and comfortable setting with others. For the size of our workshop, we only have 10 slots available. Please come prepared with a presentation topic that you are familiar with to use for your practice. The topic can be personal or professional in nature but a topic that you are knowledgeable about is key. Plan to present for a 4-7 minute time period and you are welcome to use slides but it is not required. Please email Jan@JanDwyerBang.com by May 1 if you would like to be one of these 10 people. The first 10 of you who respond will be selected to present.

The Role of the Clerk Revisited and Your Future in the Clerkdom

So, you’ve completed PD I, II and III – what’s next? In this session we will revisit the facets of the clerk profession discussed in PD I (The Role of the Clerk) and reflect on your experiences thus far in the Clerkdom. We will explore and identify your unique values as a clerk – what is important to you about your work, role, and career; consider your professional goals and aspirations; and discuss further education and professional development opportunities.