Photo (left to right):  Mary Anne Cannady (Council Member, Walterboro, SC) and Lambert

On Thursday night, I attended the Republican Mayors & Local Officials (RMLO) reception. The reception was hosted by Oklahoma City Mayor Mick Cornett. There were approximately 40 City elected officials in attendance from across the United States. Out of over 1000 City officials in attendance at this conference, you can see that we GOP City officials are hugely outnumbered.

Henry Cisneros, former Secretary of the Department of Housing and Urban Development, focused on affordable housing during his address to delegates at the Opening General Session for Congress of Cities. "The quality of housing has everything to do with the quality of our neighborhoods and our quality of life.”   Cisneros was supposed to be joined on the podium by former HUD Secretary Jack Kemp. Unfortunately, Kemp could not attend because he is recovering from knee surgery.

On Tuesday afternoon December 6th, I attended the National League of Cities Leadership Training Institute Seminar "Community Branding: Whose Job Is It?"

The intent of this seminar was to help elected officials guide their communities to a preferred future through a community branding initiative.  According to the class brochure, "Understand brand marketing, what it is, and its value and unique application to communities.  Learn the skills and steps necessary to make your community unique.  Learn from case-studies and explore the development of strategic branding applications for your community.  An effective community brand requires a leader who can balance the need to build collaborative partnerships with the need for a strategic message."

The instructor was Don McEachern, CEO, North Star Destination Strategies, Nashville, TN.

For more information, see this web page... http://www.northstarideas.com/white_papers.php