Hello. I am Paul Danczyk, President of the American Society for Public Administration.

As we enter the holiday season, we send you well wishes as you celebrate with family and friends.

December is an exciting month for advancing excellence in public service!

Thanks to everyone who voted in this year’s election. This year is of particular importance as our president-elect will become our first two-year president in 2021. This is in addition to our district, international, and student representatives terms. Depending on when you hear this message, you may still have a few days to submit your ballot. Polls close on December seventh. In January, we are planning a meet-the-leaders webinar, where the newly electeds will share more about themselves and their vision for the new administration. This is done to continue to strengthen ties across and among our members.

For the April third through seventh annual conference in Anaheim, we had a record-breaking number of panel and paper submissions. The co-chairs and track reviewers are making their final recommendations to me with selection announcements being made in mid-December.

In addition to practitioner applied and academically rigorous programming, we are hosting a number of networking and family friendly events such as an NCAA watch party, morning yoga, movie nights, and more! Keep an eye out for more information.

For this month’s national programming, our December twelveth BookTalk is Enlightened Public Finance with author Girard Miller. The webinar will be moderated by Katherine Barrett, from Barrett and Greene, with panelists Lynn Hampton, Former CEO, Washington DC Metropolitan Airport Authority, and Joseph Meneghini, a retired local government official. The conversation is timely, with implications and insights around the twenty twenty presidential campaign initiatives and hot topics—health care reform, tax policy, infrastructure, and national debt. You don’t want to miss this one!

For our Chapter and member shout outs—congratulations to the Detroit Chapter for an excellent program line-up including December thirds’ Future Scanning: Identifying Emerging Trends Shaping Our Future Panel presentation featuring a speaker from the American Library Association.

And, to the Kansas Chapter, special thanks to all of those who have reinvigorated the chapter to become one of the most vibrant, including Craig Crossette, City of Sterling, Kansas, Hannes Zacharias, University of Kansas, Alan Conroy, the Kansas Public Employees Retirement System, and many others involved, include long-standing national council member Alfred Ho, University of Kansas.  They just had a major even in Topeka, which had the Kansas Secretary of Administration, the Kansas Secretary of Commerce, and the Kansas Adjutant General to talk about the value of public service.  How cool is that! One of their distinctive chapter approaches is rotating programming across the state, having three of four events in distinct cities through the year. Keep up the great work!

For our member shout out: Miriam Singer was recently appointed as the CEO of Jewish Community Services of South Florida.  She has been the Chief Procurement Officer of Santa Clara and will be returning to her roots in South Florida, and looking forward to resuming her close connection with the South Florida Chapter. Miriam, you model the very best in advancing excellence in public service.

For updates and opportunities, check out our website at www.aspanet.org.

Have a great month and I look forward to seeing you at an upcoming event!