Life, Well Run is off and running. The campaign recently launched a new website that will help raise awareness about the critical role professional managers play in our communities and build excitement about the campaign. Check it out at www.lifewellrun.org.

Now entering its pilot phase, the campaign selected San Antonio and Seguin, Texas, and three cities from the Chicagoland area, to represent Life, Well Run as pilot communities in 2012. These cities were chosen by ICMA because of their national reputations as successful, professionally well-managed communities.

In May, the Life, Well Run campaign visited the San Antonio metropolitan area to conduct interviews with San Antonio City Manager Sheryl Sculley, Seguin City Manager Douglas G. Faseler, and influential third-party validators. The interviews will be featured in an upcoming video series called, “How Cities Grow.” These videos are designed to engage residents, highlight the work of Managers Sculley and Faseler and their professional staff, and help draw the dotted line between the local government services Seguin and San Antonio residents receive and the critical role their city manager plays in delivering those services effectively, efficiently, and ethically. Look for future updates when the videos are released.

Third-party validators included Red McCombs, founder of the Red McCombs Automotive Group and former owner of the San Antonio Spurs; former San Antonio mayors Nelson Wolff, Lila Cockrell, Henry Cisneros, and Phil Hardberger; and Carri Baker Wells, past chairman of the San Antonio Area Chamber of Congress. In Seguin, third-party validators included Mayor Betty Ann Matthies; Rudy Sauceda, vice president of Marketing for Tysons Food, Inc.; and Phil Seidenberger, executive vice president of CMC Steel—Texas.

Time-lapse videos of San Antonio and Seguin were also filmed while the campaign was in Texas. These visually highlight images of locations of which San Antonio and Seguin residents are proud. View the videos here.

Next up for the Life, Well Run campaign is the “My City, My Pride” photo contest in the pilot communities that will encourage residents to express pride in their cities. More details to come.

How Can You Support the Campaign?

Ask yourself the question, “What it the thing I've done in my community that makes me the most proud?” Then, send us the answer, which we’ll post on the Life, Well Run website. We’re looking for stories about a range of projects—big and small, old and new, from high finance to simple fixes—the kinds of projects that would be nominated for ICMA Annual Program Excellence Awards. If you or your community received an ICMA award in recent years, remind us and we’ll pull the description from our archives. If your state association has recognized model programs in your state, let us know about them. Write Amy Mayers, amayers@icma.org, with your stories.

You can also:

• Like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter
• Link to the Life, Well Run website
• Use the Life, Well Run messages in your communications
• Attend the Life, Well Run session at ICMA’s Annual Conference in Phoenix/Maricopa County, October 7 - 10, 2012.
• Make a donation to support Life, Well Run.

For more information, contact Catherine Smith at 202-962-3632 or csmith@icma.org.