Earl Weaver was a well-known manager for the Baltimore Orioles, an author, a broadcaster, and an inductee into the Baseball Hall of Fame. One of his great quotes was, “You win pennants in the off-season when you build your teams with trades and free agents.” County officials should be team building during the off-season.
While we are in between legislative sessions, we need to be figuring out what we need to do to build our teams, craft our strategies, and work on our messaging (both in Austin and at home) and our relationships with our legislators. One approach that the CJCAT has recently embarked on is recruiting and utilizing our “alumni,” so to speak.
We have created a formal way for our colleagues who have retired or otherwise moved on from county government to stay in touch, stay useful, and stay effective. Our Associate Membership base is designed to keep these folks engaged and help with the relationships, knowledge, and any leverage they still maintain with the electeds and staff in Austin, as well as the folks at home.
We know many of our affiliate association members and courthouse partners, including sheriffs, constables, clerks, justices of the peace, treasurers, tax assessor-collectors, etc., read our magazine. I would like to encourage you to engage with your alumni if you’re not already. Maintaining those relationships and that camaraderie with our friends who are no longer holding office has a lot of value. Many of them still maintain friendships with other electeds, they still go to the same churches, they still play golf with legislators every now and then, etc. They also hold a wealth of knowledge and experience from which we can all still draw. Why not formalize their participation as much or as little as they would like to be involved?
As active members in our communities, not many of us are potted plants. Our friends who have served and moved onto other roles – whether traveling, grandparenting, or finding other ways to be involved in community activities – aren’t any better at sitting still than they used to be. They still have a lot to offer, and I’d like to see our organizations find ways to keep them engaged.
It’s all about the greater good of our counties that we so love. If we can build more victories at the capitol by having more friends engaged in carrying our messages, then it’s good for every single constituent.
Let’s work on our team building in the off-season. Remember the camaraderie we celebrate during our Legislative Breakfasts on Tuesdays? Whether you attend from Austin or via Zoom while getting ready in the morning, it is always such a great platform for county officials to share their perspectives, impacts, and views of upcoming legislation across our offices. Let’s keep this camaraderie up in the off-season!