President

Debbie Burke

President Elect Shannon Corin

Vice President Christy O’Flaherty

Secretary Virginia Olsen

Treasurer Gina Anderson

Board Members

Jill Boltz Debbie Jermann

Kay Kammer Dee Roberts

Paula Swisher Bobbie Usselman

Past President Diana Quinn

Visit our Website:

www.WMCAClerks.org

Editor, Jennifer Veneklasen

Executive Committee

Founded in 1970,

WMCA is a non-profit

association that pro-

motes the professional

and education stan-

dards of Municipal

Clerks, County Clerks,

and Transit Board

Clerks in various local

governments of the

State of Washington.

Debbie Burke, MMC

President’s Message Greetings Membership! Hope you are all staying cool. I will have attended a wedding in eastern Washington by the time this is published and I am dreading the 100-degree weather! The Executive Committee had a productive meeting in June. Treasurer Anderson provided reports on the finances and purchased speaker gift cards with former President Passey’s credit card points. We had our Education Coordinator Ali Spietz and Education Committee Chair Carol Etgen visit to report on a myriad of education updates. The Board approved the new Education job descriptions, Fall Academy speaker, consideration of East and West Side Fall Academy options for 2016, and talked with them about the Education Survey results. Boardmember/Conference Committee Chair Paula Swisher will be doing conference site visits this summer and present her findings and recommendation for future venues at our next meeting. Eight (8) other quarterly reports from Committees were also reviewed. While some were routine, there were some new exciting decisions made for fundraising and membership, as well as ratification for a second round of scholarships approved for the Northwest Clerk’s Institute sessions. President-Elect Corin volunteered to create the postcard mailing to the membership for our Fall Academy. There will be more to come to determine whether we will submit a letter of support for the Visit Spokane application to be submitted next year to bid on hosting the IIMC 2021 Conference. Boardmember Boltz volunteered to draft a letter to all of our Regional Associations in Washington to get a feel of what support their members would be interested in providing for this conference should the bid be awarded for Spokane. The International City Manager’s Association (ICMA) Conference will be held in Seattle this year. Everyone who signs up to volunteer will receive a complimentary one-day registration. This is an opportunity that doesn’t come around often! A link to the volunteer registration will be in the next issue of our newsletter for those interested. Here is a little information about where they will seek volunteers: bus chaperones, welcome desk, aquarium reception, airport greeter, general hospitality at conference and social events. The date of the conference is Sunday, September 27th to Wednesday, September 30th. The meeting ended with a presentation to former President Quinn of a belated trophy for her desk that has the “Work Your Magic” Conference theme, and dates she served as President. (See page 4 for a picture!) In closing, I was watching a morning show today and they were sharing that the Mayo Clinic paid people to develop the following statement (that we already know): Happiness is a Choice! Enjoy your summer.

WMCA NWMCA NWMCA NEWSLETTEREWSLETTEREWSLETTER

WMCA July 2015

ON THE INSIDE... 2015 Fall Academy Page 2

Featured Clerk Page 3

Legislative Report Page 5

Laugh Out Loud Page 6

Fundraising Page 4

Membership News Page 7

T-Shirt Contest Page 7

Your Attitude is Your Altitude

WMCA 2015 Fall Academy

WMCA July 2015 Page 2

Friday, October 2, 2015 8:30 am – 4:30 pm Hal Holmes Center - Ellensburg, WA

Being a successful clerk in a challenging municipal environment does not happen automatically. You can try your best to do your job in the right way, but dealing with different people (many in different departments) with different personalities, perspectives, and priorities can create frustration and problems. Clerks need more than the internal fortitude to manage the stress. Without the authority to mandate compliance, they need the personal and communication skills to influence people in a positive way and gain their commitment.

This six-hour program contains a comprehensive list of knowledge and skills that prepare clerks to maximize their effectiveness. Included is:

The Magic is in the Mix - This is the simplest tool available for dealing with a variety of people with different personality types. You will understand the difference between "difficult" and "different" and learn to both understand and communicate effectively with everyone.

The Principle of Principles - You will learn the critical obstacles that tend to keep people from exemplifying these qualities and be provided with a process for overcoming those obstacles. You will also learn how to translate performance characteristics into specific job-related behaviors.

The Art of Self-Management - Much has been researched and written lately about emotional intelligence and the varied abilities of people to cope with stressors both in and out of the workplace. You will learn specific, valuable, and time-proven tools to improve your ability to handle what is thrown at you and respond in positive ways.

Assertiveness and Influencing Without Authority - People have studied the art of influence in relation to disciplines like sales, negotiation, marketing, and advertising for many years. You will learn specific communication tools that will balance desired results with maintaining relationships with the important goal of gaining commitment, not just compliance. This includes sequential steps for both listening effectively and having difficult conversations.

The Value of Building Trust - All relationships depend on trust; however, trust is not something that is either present or absent. Trust can be maximized, and you will learn the components of trust and be able to develop plans to develop the kind of trustworthiness that will improve your effectiveness with others.

Attendance is open to all WMCA members. You do not need to have your CMC to attend!

This session has been approved for three CMC or three MMC education points by IIMC through the

Northwest Clerks Institute upon completion of KTAP

Registration and hotel information is on the WMCA website at www.wmcaclerks.org/2015FallAcademy

Questions? Contact Education Coordinator Ali Spietz at ali.spietz@mercergov.org

FEATURED CLERK

WMCA July 2015 Page 3

Jennifer Veneklasen, City of Port Angeles Written by Virginia Olsen To set the record straight, yes, Jennifer did layout this issue and no, she didn’t write this article. A last minute substitution was needed and when Jennifer was asked to step in as a subject, she agreed. Thanks for coming through in the clutch, Jennifer! Jennifer’s last name is pronounced “Venne-klausen” with short “e” sounds and the “a” sounds like a short “o”. She explained that she kept her maiden name of Dutch origin. Jennifer and her husband Jeff moved to Port Angeles about nine years ago and she’s been the Port Angeles City Clerk for one year. Jennifer grew up in Amarillo, Texas and then attended college at Colorado State University where she received a Bachelor Degree in Journalism. She and Jeff met in Colorado while working at an Irish Pub. He was her boss. When it came time to decide where to live permanently, Jennifer thought about moving to the East Coast and Jeff preferred somewhere more rugged with activities like hunting and fishing. They worked out a compromise by taking out a map, closing their eyes, and they put their finger down on Washington State. Jennifer said she read about a Bed and Breakfast place in Sequim that was featured in Sunset Magazine. She and Jeff visited the B&B in 2003 and took the ferry over to Port Angeles where she said they were attracted to the combination of water and mountains. The couple decided they could live in Port Angeles so they returned to Colorado, sold the house, and moved in 2005. With a view of the Strait of Juan de Fuca out their front yard and the vast Olympic National Park behind them, they set out to find jobs. “We were young and capable and we knew we would find something,” Jennifer stated. With a degree in journalism, Jennifer quickly found employment with the Peninsula Daily News as an editor. Her husband Jeff works in sales for a distributor out of Seattle. Jennifer and Jeff have five year-old daughter named Olivia and they are expecting a little boy by mid-August. Jennifer noted that this was definitely a surprise baby, as she wasn’t planning to expand the family in the first year of a new job. Jennifer said her City Manager and the staff in Port Angeles (population 19,038) are pretty fabulous and she really enjoys working there. Surprisingly, being relatively new to the clerk world, Jennifer has already discovered the Northwest Clerks Institute where she is working toward her certification having just completed PD I. How did she find out about it so soon? Her predecessor, Janessa Hurd, not only trained her but outlined an education plan for her. (Take notes supervisors and thank you, Janessa!)

Top photo: Jennifer and her husband Jeff. At right: The couple’s

daughter, Olivia.

Story continued on Page 4

WMCA July 2015 Page 4

WMCA FUNDRAISING — WHAT’S HAPPENING!

A 50/50 Raffle will be conducted at the Fall Academy Session, scheduled for October 2, 2015. It couldn’t be easier - $1 tickets are sold and the winning ticket gets half of the pot and the Scholarship Fund receives the other half. We will continue to sell the Grand Raffle tickets with cash prizes of $1,000, $750, and $500 available. Only 1,500 tickets will be sold at $5/each or 5 for $20. We should have tickets available for sale and to be checked out by members to sell at the October 2 Fall Academy Session. We will hold a live and silent auction during the 2016 Spring Annual Conference. We do have a “special” live auction item this year - stay tuned! We will also continue the $1 Raffle, with the winning ticket being drawn at the end of the last session on Friday - $100 cash prize could be yours. NEW THIS YEAR: We are going to try out a new fundraiser called "Heads or Tails;" we are working out logistics, but it will be fun and of course, there is a cash prize involved - stay tuned for details, as we get closer to conference. As noted in the article in this newsletter, we are conducting a T-Shirt design contest - we hope to have the shirts ready for sale at the Fall Academy Session on October 2, and will have a new stock ready for sale at the Annual Conference. FINALLY, we will once again offer the front zip, hooded, colorful sweatshirts for pre-sale orders only. Look for more details to come from Kay Kammer.

In addition, Jennifer has already attended a WMCA conference and two WAPRO trainings. She described herself as “education focused” and she serves on both the Education and Newsletter Committees for WMCA. “PD I really helped me because you can feel overwhelmed and isolated in the Clerk role, thinking you should know everything already, especially records management for an entire city.” She added, “I learned that you need to keep working toward your goals one step at a time and that we’re all in the same boat.” With a young family and busy job, Jennifer said she’s not sure if she has any hobbies anymore. “We like to take advantage of the good weather and be outdoors a lot, particularly at Lake Crescent.” Jennifer added that she’s taught yoga for several years but hasn’t been doing it since she took the Clerk job. Jennifer stated she went into journalism because she thought it would never be boring and she would learn many new things. As it turns out, Jennifer says she finds the Clerk job fun because she is in the middle of everything and every day is a new challenge. Jennifer, congratulations from WMCA on your fairly new job and your second child coming soon. Our members are all here to help you as you work to balance family, career and professional development!

Featured Clerk story continued from Page 3

Port Angeles Harbor with Olympic Mountains in backdrop.

WMCA July 2015 Page 5

JULY 2015 LEGISLATIVE REPORT

By Sandy Paul MMC, Legislative Committee Chair This article is an ongoing thing. Not THIS very one but once a current article is submitted, the next one is already growing and in the planning stages, capturing topics to report and to provoke thought next month. There are some topics that haven’t been touched on this year, such as texts and tweets as public documents, and some municipalities are getting into trouble over not being able to submit them when publicly requested, but that’s a conversation for a later time. However, the document that was prepared and mostly ready to go by the deadline of this newsletter has been tossed out as obsolete information! Nothing has happened in a month, yet, so much has. All that said, a Tweet was noted on June 29 and captured for this document from Pierce County Councilmember Derek Young, Gig Harbor. Young retweeted Seattle Times political reporter Joe O'Sullivan on June 29: “Remember this the next time #waleg lectures local government on transparency.” At reference was the speed at which the state was releasing the details of what is in the budget that has allegedly been agreed upon by both houses of the WA Legislature. (It’s so too bad the legislature doesn’t have to answer to public records requests.) The good news: we might have a budget, although we also have Overtime Session #3 to figure out the transportation part of it, and the exact language of how things are going to work.

The bad news: we don’t know much about what it says. Capturing sales taxes from online sales? Maybe. Sharing cannabis taxes with cities? Not unless you have stores selling weed in your cities. And it looks like that cannabis tax will be a hefty 37%? Wow! $1.3 billion for education is a good start to meeting a 2018 timeline for full funding of WA Education. The money would go a lot farther had we not had to pay legislators for three, count ‘em, three special sessions. When did serving the future of the state of Washington and its citizens become rocket science? Are there any rocket scientists elected to the legislature? At the end of the day, legislators simply agreed to pass a timely budget to save the state from total shutdown and saving the jobs of many. That IS a good thing. The details and language have yet to be fully worked out. They had better not be expecting any awards, since they were not IN ATTENDANCE in Olympia the week of the USGA Open at University Place’s Chambers Bay Golf Course. To quote anything on this date at this time is premature and conjecture. The AWC website, too, is devoid of any information but the recently adjourned Annual Conference, always a highlight and always a huge success for its participants. WMCA was there as a vendor and schmoozing with electeds. Did you see the Facebook posts? Here’s a word to Google while you’re having a mental break at your desk and need a good belly laugh: intransigence. It’s been used in recent years to describe the other Washington. Sounds like the WA on the right coast has taken script from their playbook. Just sayin’.

Thank you for your service President Quinn! Former WMCA President Diana Quinn was honored at the WMCA’s recent Executive Committee Meeting where she was presented with a belated trophy for her desk that has the “Work Your Magic” Conference theme and dates she served as President. Quinn is shown here with current President Debbie Burke.

WMCA July 2015 Page 6

LAUGH OUT LOUD

Do you have a funny story, joke or cartoon you would like to share? Please submit them to Shannon.Corin@ci.bremerton.wa.us.

There, I guess King George will be

able to read that.

~ John Hancock

On signing the Declaration of Independence

How Many States Can You Name?

Father William, the old priest, made it a practice to

visit the parish school one day a week. He walked

into the 4th grade class, where the children were

studying the states, and asked them how many

states they could name. They came up with about

40 names. Father William jokingly told them that in

his day students knew the names of all the states.

One lad raised his hand and said, 'Yes sir, but in

those days there were only 13 states.’

… everything!

Fourth of July Jokes

Did you hear the one about the Liberty Bell? ……………………………..Yeah, it cracked me up!

What kind of tea did the American colonists thirst for? …………….. Liberty!

What was the craziest battle of the Revolutionary War?.............. The Battle of Bonkers Hill.

Why were the first Pennsylvania settlers like ants? …………………… Because they lived in colonies.

Why did Paul Revere ride his horse from Boston to Lexington?.... Because the horse was too heavy to carry.

Published by Clerks for Clerks!

If you have any great news to share or ideas for articles for the next edition of the WMCA Newsletter, be sure to email them to Melody Valiant at mvaliant@ci.tumwater.wa.us & Rachel Shaw at rshaw@ci.prosser.wa.us

MEMBERSHIP NEWS

WMCA July 2015 Page 7

CONGRATULATIONS TO OUR NEWEST CERTIFIED MUNICIPAL CLERKS:

Anastasiya Warhol, CMC, Town of Yarrow Point Dana Daniels, CMC, County of Kitsap Rachel Pitzel, CMC, City of Orting

WMCA and our Membership Committee would like to welcome our newest members:

Kami L. Albers of Chelan County, Greg Pike of City of Royal City and

Louise Bartol of Valley Regional Fire Authority

CMC

WHAT WOULD YOU PUT ON A T-SHIRT?

Something snappy... something catchy; that is what we will be looking for! We are having a contest to design T-Shirts that will be available for purchase at both the 2015 Fall Academy Session, and the 2016 Spring Annual Academy and Conference. Here are the contest rules - read, create, submit, and have fun: Contest is open to all WMCA Members.

Each WMCA member can submit a maximum of five (5) entries.

Entries must include the proposed slogan verbiage; graphics may be included.

Entries must be received by July 31, 2015, 5:00 p.m.

All entries will be ranked by the Fundraising Committee Members, with a recommendation submitted to the Executive Committee no later than Friday, August 14, 2015.

The WMCA Executive Committee will review and select the winning design no later than August 28, 2015.

The winning T-Shirt design will receive a paid registration to either the 2015 Fall Academy or 2016 Spring Academy.

Submit your entry as follows (e-mail is preferred): Debbie Jermann, Clerk of the Board C-TRAN, P.O. Box 2529 Vancouver, WA 98668 (360) 906-7303; debbiej@c-tran.org