Meeker Cemetery Board attends Special District Association conference
Dear Editor:
The staff and two members of the board of the Meeker Cemetery District attended the Special District Association Conference in Keystone September 10-12. The first morning started off with Ann Terry, CEO, announcing to the Meeker Cemetery the most beautiful cemetery in the nation, and that a member of the cemetery board, Teresia R Reed, had been attending the SDA Leadership Academy and been awarded an academic scholarship for her achievement.
Here are a few highlights from the rest of the conference. Eric Bergman, the new DLG Director at DOLA went through a lot of information about the different types of funding opportunities that have opened up and gave some scenarios of things that are being funded in the current Department of Local Affairs. There are a few funds that may be available to our community. Notes were taken and the PowerPoint was requested for further research. The funding directory can be found at https://dlg.colorado.gov/funding-directory
While some of those attending went to more job-related sessions, several members of the board attended the session on Updating By-Laws, presented by a group of attorneys. As our evenings were scheduled to review the By-Laws as a group in our condo it was a fortuitous session and much of the work to complete the By-Laws has been done. There were a lot of really valuable tips that will be utilized in many local organizations in our community. The connections made with attorneys, vendors and other districts were very helpful.
The Keynotes at this conference were very good. Justin Forsett, a former NFL Running Back, shared his story of being fired eight times and still coming back for more. A few of the reminders he gave us are, 1. Focus on what you can control the rest will sort itself out. 2. If you are too big to serve you are too small to lead. 3. Challenging moments do not define us they refine us.
There were many sessions about communication and how to meet the ne ADA requirements of our new legislation. There was a session about state federal case law and how it can impact Special Districts. There was also a session on Navigating Conflict and being an effective leader in turbulent times. A lot of the session were on how be successful as a member of a board, as a member of a special district and as a member of the community.
Probably one the most important Keynotes was that of John Sileo regarding Cybersecurity. The link to his keypoints is available for anyone wanting to more about how to keep themselves safe. His story is pretty compelling and gives us reason to do all that we can to stay cyber-safety.
If you belong to a special district or serve on the board of a special district, you need to know how special districts work, how they are funded, how they are legally structured, how our legislative body can impact us and how they serve the public. This conference met all of those needs and we would encourage others in the community to attend this conference in the future.
Sincerely,
Teresia Reed
Meeker Cemetery District Board