Transcripts

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Joe Supervielle:

Welcome to Voices in Local Government an ICMA podcast. My name is Joe Superville. Today to discuss I CMAs veterans and local government management fellowship program, which is free for local governments, high-level experts coming to work for you who are paid through the Department of Defense program free, no budget impact, is Lieutenant Colonel Dean Huard, current ICMA Fellow with Georgetown, Texas. And Lynn Phillips ICMA, Senior Program Manager for veterans. Thanks for joining us today.

Dean Huard:

Thanks Joe. Appreciate it.

Lynn Phillips:

Great to be here, Joe.

Joe Supervielle:

So Dean, let's start with you. What's your background in military service? Lieutenant Colonel rank there, but what was your role? What was your expertise?

Dean Huard:

Well, for the last 34 years, as I'm getting ready to retire, I've done all different branches, guard, reserve, and active duty. I spent the first 13 years of my career doing the guard and reserves and then when 911 happened, I was working a corporate position in Palm Springs, California. Ironically, both my wife and I were in pharmaceutical sales and had territory on the I-10 corridor in southern California. And when 911 happened, my reserve unit got activated, spent two years at Fort Leonard Wood Missouri, worked as a battalion XO, executive officer in charge of a staff. And then from there I came back and wanted to do it full-time. So I came on active duty full-time. I answered the call-back duty program, had an opportunity to deploy to Iraq up in Key West. Then from there went to a joint position at US Transcom and then came to Fort Hood, Texas. I've been an army logistician my entire career. So that's been my background the last three, four years.

Joe Supervielle:

Okay, well logistics, local government, we'll get into that, how that and other things tie in. Lynn Phillips, what about you? What's your service background?

Lynn Phillips:

It's interesting because both Dean and I are logistics officers, so we share that, we're both army officers. I actually enlisted in the National Guard because my college didn't have ROTC and then transferred schools, did the ROTC program, had the traditional route. Spent 10 years on active duty but then got married. I decided to get out and go into the reserves and do the spouse reserves thing and actually did several more years on active duty during the mid to late 2000s and then finally retired. So I'm really happy to be at ICMA now.

Joe Supervielle:

Okay. And we'll get to Dean's story through the fellowship program in local government, but Lynn, what brought you into local government or what caught your interest and helped you transition to that?

Lynn Phillips:

Sure, that's an interesting story too. So my husband was a garrison commander, an army installation commander, at Aberdeen Proving Ground Maryland. And as he was in that position, he became a member of ICMA and through his job we just got to meet a lot of the folks that work in local government. The city manager of Aberdeen at the time, another ICMA member, Randy Robertson. Great guy, great family, really got me interested in local government and seeing the possibilities of what it can offer as a career. And that's what got me interested in ICMA.

Joe Supervielle:

Okay, well thank you both for your service. Now let's talk about how Dean kind of transitioned in, but that is the ICMA Veterans and Local Government Management Fellowship Program. So before we get into Dean's specifics, Lynn, can you give us just the zoom-out version, What is this, what it for? What are the goals for this program?

Lynn Phillips:

Absolutely. It's a fantastic program. Back in the day when I transferred out of active duty military SkillBridge did not exist the way it does today. There's always been transition programs through the services, but SkillBridge has really taken off through Department of Defense and what it does is it enables service members who are still on active duty. So they're still getting pay and benefits and they are able to work with civilian organizations, with corporate companies and in our case, local governments, where they can be hands-on from nine to five every day for up to six months while they're still on active duty. And the intent behind this is to help service members transition into local government. So ICMA heard about this, it started as a grassroots effort with local government out in Colorado with Darren Tangeman and my director Rob Hardy said, "This is fantastic, why are we not doing this at the national level?"

So we started a program at ICMA, it is designed to be 16 weeks long and we work with all of the services and it enables transitioning service members to work in local governments anywhere that we have an ICMA member.

So it's a great opportunity for service members who want to go into local government to get some experience, hands-on experience, and also a fantastic opportunity for city and counties who are looking to hire or who may just have some special projects that they need some assistance with. It's a great opportunity for both a service member and the organization.

Joe Supervielle:

Okay. So Dean, how did you originally hear about this when you were still full-time in the military? What drew you to it or where did you first hear about the program?

Dean Huard:

Well, I'd like the same. My journey started about three years ago when I knew that I wanted to do something else in some form of service. I've done service in the federal government for the last 34 years and I still wanted to serve. And ironically when I first went to college, I got accepted into a public administration program at the University of Oregon, go Ducks, by the way. So I got accepted into that program and then decided to change my major back to political science, made it my minor. And so I kind of feel like things are kind of coming 360 full circle for me because I've always had that desire to want to do something in local government. But about three years ago, I don't know if it was on LinkedIn or where, but I saw that there were veterans that were doing local government. They were city managers and they were former either retired lieutenant colonels, former battalion commanders.

And I looked at their resumes and it just really appealed to me based off of my education, my background, and the fact that I think the skill set really, really, really matches. Because in my last job in the Army is I was the chief of staff for a brigade executive officer for the full seventh AFSB, which is a sustainment logistics unit. And in the role as chief of staff, I have HR, intel training, budget and all those functions are what city managers do.

So again, I started about three years ago. I also did a lot of things I think on to prepare myself. I joined the local planning and zoning committee, which is something I would really advise anybody that was interested in getting the city management is try to do things that are going to make you stand out, be marketable, and really act local. Try to, even though the small town I live in is Linville, Texas, myself being on the planning and zoning committee, my wife is actually on the economic development committee. My son worked for the public works department this last summer. It was kind of a family affair over this last year.

And then the last thing I did was I was accepted into at the Texas A&M Bush School. It's a graduate certificate program in public management and just again, trying to build the resume, trying to make myself marketable for positions in local government.

Joe Supervielle:

Yeah, I think the keyword there too, you said functions. I think a lot of times people, any people, but local government, whatever else, they associate the military with leadership and organization and discipline, which is true, but that's just kind of the high-level thing. It's still day to day functions of this expertise, that expertise and whether you're in logistics or other categories, it can transfer. And then the second key point there you said was make yourself marketable.

Being a vet is obviously a positive and I think a lot of people do, that's an intention grabber, and can be a "Hey, thank you for your service kind of thing." But can't, that's not going to do it on its own whether you're trying to get into local government or any other private business. So making yourself marketable, as you said in this case, getting involved in the local government even before you're working there I think is a really-

Dean Huard:

So in my prior life, but before I came on duty full time, I did, as I mentioned, I did sales and marketing for corporations. And one thing on active duty, some of us don't realize that we're all selling concepts and ideas in some way, shape, or form, and especially when it comes to start applying for positions and doing that transition process is we're selling ourselves. And I really think that you need to find a way to sell the fact that what you've been doing on active duty really does translate. And that leadership aspect is so important because I think local government really does need good leaders out there.

Joe Supervielle:

So what do you doing day to day? And this is case by case, Not every fellow, not every location's going to have the same need. Glen mentioned earlier there might be special projects that in the duration might come into play, but tell us your story. What are you doing day to day there that's helping that fits what you want to do and what you're good at, but also fills the need for Georgetown, Texas?

Dean Huard:

Well first a quick plug for Georgetown because since I've been here they've been amazing. Georgetown is the fastest growing city in the country and to me, and that was part of my choice with trying to choose a city because I could have gone to Coleen or even the small town that I live in Linville. But the city manager that I spoke to, she recommended that I go to Georgetown, which is about 40 minutes out from where I live.

But what an amazing experience because the town's growing and it's been interesting to watch how the town keep is trying to keep up pace. I mean yesterday I was on a water plant tour and I got to see how they're building a brand new water plant to keep up with that growth. They're going to double their gallons per day. I think they're going to go to 44 million gallons a day.

So Georgetown's given me a framework, they've been very gracious with putting me in the city manager's office. So I attend all the meetings at the executive level. So I'm in there with the city manager, with the assistant city managers. I get to see how agendas are set when, because the city council in Georgetown meets every other week. And I get to see how that happens, how that magic happens, how they decide what agenda item gets put on the agenda.

They actually allow me the freedom to do some creative things as far as taking my leadership so they can benefit from that as well.

Day to day I've been also assigned, they have an organizational development section of their HR department, and they're looking at, ironically I did this on active duty working with performance metrics and they have us looking at all the different department's performance metrics and as a logistician that comes natural because you're looking at trend analysis on sustainment of vehicles and parts and things like that. So that's really been my day to day is working a performance analytics project.

But the rest is, like I said, it's kind of up to me. I take the initiative to schedule meetings with department heads, the mayor, the city council. Again, I've been very fortunate because they've really integrated me into the entire process. I was in their strategic planning two Fridays ago, their team building projects. So very, very fortunate to be in Georgetown.

Joe Supervielle:

Lynn, earlier you mentioned the Skillbridge program. A question I ask on almost every episode is how is this paid for? So Dean's not necessarily going to do all this stuff for free as much of he enjoys it. So I think we have one of the best answers to the how is this paid for question, which I mentioned at the top, but can you just clarify and be very clear to the local governments out there that yeah, I don't know if this is worth it or worth their time. It's free, correct?

Lynn Phillips:

Yes, free, free, free, free, free. It's free. It's free. There is no cost to the organization and that is one huge advantage to getting involved with the program. So it's simply a matter of their time, which does not take a lot of investment. Most city and county governments already have some kind of program, internship program that can be easily adaptable. So it's a great opportunity to get someone with training, with experience. You've got someone like Dean who is educated, is a senior leader, has a lot that he can bring to the organization in terms of assistance. So that's why I like to say it's a win-win situation.

And we advise our host organizations to design the program based on the fellows needs and skill sets because we get all levels. The eligibility requirement could be anyone who simply has an associate's degree and five years of leadership experience in the military, all the way up to someone like Dean who is retiring, who not only has a background in military service but work in the civilian sector as well.

Just a wealth of knowledge. So we get a very broad range of skill sets and so the program is designed on the host needs, things that they need to have done and can gain support as well as the fellow's needs at the time. And the skills are, like I said, all different types that are easily translatable into local government from everything from fleet management, which equates to transportation in the military. Police, and attorneys, we joke around and say that the infantry are door kickers, but in local government, we sit through city council meetings. So just a very broad range of applicable skills that translate easily.

Joe Supervielle:

And to be clear, there's no obligation to hire a full-time at the end of the program. Now that is a goal though, to be fair. And we hope in each circumstance it works out for both sides but there's not a promise or an obligation, right?

Lynn Phillips:

That is absolutely correct. This fellowship is designed to provide experience, hands-on experience, mentorship. We ask our host to assist with interviewing and resume writing through our ICMA Coach Connect program. We also offer assistance with mentorship and those types of skills as well as networking, which we talked about. Networking is super important. And the goal, in our perfect world, would be yes, the service member would do four months working in one specific area and then would be able to apply and interview and receive a job offer. But that's just not always possible in terms of location. So we understand that a job offer is not a requirement.

Joe Supervielle:

Okay, and that's similar to, we did a podcast month or two ago on the fellows that are coming out of grad school in early career. But the goal is to get your foot in the door, get the experience not just on the resume but in real life so you can speak to it and have success stories to tell.

Dean Huard:

I could too. So go ahead. Go over the last couple months I'm in that window where I'm going to start interviewing for positions. And I really think it benefits me in the process because I have city, the George City of Georgetown on my resume. And have I been here very long? No. But the fact that I already have a city on my resume, even if it's as a fellow, I think that pays and it's already, I think in my view it's already paid big dividends because I could walk into an interview not cold, not understanding all the different functions and capabilities of local government

Joe Supervielle:

And transitioning careers or industries is difficult, and regardless, that's where the help comes in, where it's not, and this is one of the questions, why should a local government take a chance on hiring a veteran? Yes, there are transferable skills. Yes, they've demonstrated leadership and success, but this is literally the bridge where you can say they've proved it even if it's for a short duration.

But there are some challenges that you could both speak to. So getting back to the hiring or making that match, it can be difficult because the senior level positions are in high demand, especially in the high demand locations. And people like Dean coming out as Lieutenant Colonel have some flexibility and leverage, let's say their not just going to have to take anything. So Lynn, you can speak to it from the local government side, Dean from the fellow side, but it does seem challenging to get that perfect match.

So is that something that should be discussed on the front end or should that be, "Hey let's just get this done, we'll get the help, you'll get the experience and then we'll figure it out." What's the best way to go about it to maybe increase the chances for a full-time position?

Lynn Phillips:

I absolutely think, and Dean you're going to weigh in, but I absolutely think that the organization, the host organization as well as the fellow should be upfront from the start in terms of the host organization, do they have jobs available that the fellow can go into? Because that sets the stage in terms of... The fellow wants the experience, the experience will be beneficial, but they need to, the fellow obviously is going to be looking for their next career and they need to know can they find that in the organization that they're in or do they need to broaden their job search. So I think it's important on both ends to be upfront about the situation because it's still beneficial regardless. What are you think Dean?

Dean Huard:

Well I remember when I first got here, I was very candid. Well even an interview with the city manager and the Cincinnati manager ahead of time, I told him straight up, I said, "More than likely I'm going to get more out of this than you will." And that's just the nature of internships I think or fellowships, is that you're the one that's trying to garner all this information because you're new and you don't know.

I would recommend to any candidate to make sure that they do the work, do the work ahead of time so that when you go in to ask and tell them and educate them about the program that they see that you have done the work. And like I said, I tried to do that with being involved in the city, proving education, things like that.

But again, I think the internship or the fellowship is really what you make of it. And you need to get with a city, like Georgetown, that's going to enable you and open doors for you. I mean I was shocked and odd when David said David Morgan city manager says, "Hey, we're going to take you to the ICMA." And that to me proves that they're interested in helping and mentoring because one thing I've noticed about local government, it's all about culture, it's all about teamwork.

I just interviewed the other day for an assistant city manager position and it's all about fit. It's all about culture and they want to make sure that you have the right leadership style that fits into their organization, because the skill set they can teach you, but they want to make sure that you get along with others. Got good interpersonal skills.

Joe Supervielle:

Yeah, Dean just said leadership style, going back to kind of stereotypes or even missed. There can be from the civilian world that hey, they're in the military, they're the drill sergeant stereotype we've seen in movies, they're uptight, they're organized and effective, but they're in your face and they're rigid maybe is the word. I think listeners can tell from listening to Dean, he's none of those things the organization, yes, but the rigid part, no.

How can a local government interview that it, see it's kind of an intangible thing, but is that really the only way to do it is in person, whether it's culture-fit or leadership style. How do you actually figure that out when you're the hiring manager or the interviewee?

Dean Huard:

Well I've told those people my entire military career and I do think that leadership is the same whether or not you're wearing a shirt and tie or if you're actually in a uniform every day and that you're right, that may take some convincing to some folks that haven't come across military leadership styles and I'm sure they're out there. But if you're a successful leader in the military, I really think you're going to be a successful leader in civilian world and local government.

Lynn Phillips:

And to caveat on what Dean said because we talk about this a lot in our veteran's advisory committee in terms of the stereotypes that are out there that you just mentioned, Joe being rigid and not being able to work with people and in every industry, there're different stereotypes, different personalities. But I will tell you that in the military it's a people business and I think it's even more so a people business because it's very difficult to motivate someone to do something they do not want to do and especially if it means putting your life in harm's way.

And so I think in the military you learn how to work with people and to be a good leader and leadership is embedded from day one in the military, from the lowest level all the way up and all those terms we learn about and do webinars about agile leadership and pushing leadership down to the lowest level, being an empathetic leader. All of those things we learn in the military and they translate over. Like Dean said, "A good leader is a good leader." It doesn't matter what industry you're in.

Dean Huard:

Hey Joe, if I could, one quick point too, having attended the ICMA and you see how important diversity equity inclusion is throughout civilian world and obviously in local government as well, All the local government leaders that are out there that are looking, that are interested in bringing on new people, really need to consider the background of what a military person goes through.

It's not just the training but the fact that military are embedded with diversity equity inclusion. Because throughout my career I was in charge of different diversity back-grounded folks and I had bosses that were different races than me and we all have the same mission. It doesn't really matter what race, creed, color people are, we all have the same mission to support the flag and support the constitution.

Joe Supervielle:

Yeah. Dean, one more question what's been your experience adjusting to, let's say, not as clear-cut a chain of command? Everyone still has a boss and they have a boss and potentially somebody else?

Dean Huard:

It's funny. I do have a couple anecdotes about that because well especially being used to military-run meetings in that it's a little different sometimes because when the leader doesn't show up right on time, they will usually wait for the leader to show up. It just not making judgments in any way, shape, or form, but it's just a different way.

But I tell you one of the most refreshing things that I've seen is just the lack of bureaucracy is, as we know, the higher up you go in the government, at the federal level, it just gets harder and harder I think to really make a difference and really see and change. But at a local level, I was just at a leadership academy yesterday where it was citizen participation and a panel of all the Georgetown department heads. And to me it was just really neat to see how the citizens said after that presentation they said, "We really appreciate what you're doing for the city." And I was proud because, and I'm just a fellow, but just to see all these department heads that care about the city and are concerned, slight negative, but mostly all positive. I mean just it's very refreshing.

Joe Supervielle:

I think that's a big reason a lot of us love the local government world because of literally local impact and bureaucracy is a tough word and sometimes it's there, sometimes it's not. But you can get stuff done for real people. Have you had to adjust to not necessarily the politics of it, because obviously the local government administrators are not elected and that's not what we get into, but dealing with the councils, how have you adapted to that?

Dean Huard:

Ironically and I think the jewel of Georgetown is the decorum and the level of professionalism that I've seen here, because that doesn't always happen, I mean I've read too many stories about city managers getting fired and they've had bad politics with city councils, but I have not seen that. And we've talked about it kind of behind the scenes and I think most of the staff realize that this is, it's very unique, that a council gets along the mayor, the mayor gets along the city manager. It isn't just something that just happened. I mean when I sit down one on one with the city manager David, he said, because he is been here for about seven years, it's taken a while to get to this point. But it's all just leadership. It's leading people in the right direction.

Joe Supervielle:

One other challenge I wanted to touch on a little bit was location. I mentioned how military families have to move around a lot depending on deployments and orders. But again, not everyone necessarily coming out or wanting to get involved in this program as a lieutenant colonel, it could be, can be mid-level people. But either way it is often the case that as people transition out of the military, they are trying to settle down maybe and pick a spot, pick a location or maybe they already have that because of where family currently is or has been. But that can make it tough because then that limits the radius of local governments you can either get a fellowship or work with full time.

Dean you mentioned earlier, I think a 40 minute commute to Georgetown's not bad but-

Dean Huard:

Yeah.

Joe Supervielle:

... Probably fortunate that that worked out.

Lynn, can you speak to adjusting expectations maybe isn't the best phrase, but how can the fellows or the local government's kind of solve that dilemma of there are more desirable locations but then people have their own spots and it's hard to coordinate. And again this is for any job hunt or industry, but how do you think we can improve on that to make more matches?

Lynn Phillips:

Sure, absolutely. I think part of it is the flexibility of the service members. So a lot of our fellows, they are more senior, they are retiring, they have kids that may be in high school, they're not interested in moving. And so as you said that that does make it a little more challenging. But I think the service members need to be aware of that. And so perhaps it's starting out as a department director versus going right into a city manager position. That definitely opens opportunities. And then being with, understanding, that you may have to make a little longer commute in the beginning to ultimately get to where you want to go. And then on the host organization side, considering the skillsets that the service member may have that can be translatable. I don't know, what do you think Dean?

Dean Huard:

No, I think Joe mentioned it. But just like the corporate world, you have to be flexible mean as far as opportunities outside of your immediate area. And at Fort Hood, a lot of folks want to stay in the area and our goal is to probably look outside the area, maybe towards a metroplex but even maybe out towards the west coast. So it just depends. But as far as the fellowship itself, I sought out a city that I thought would really benefit me and try to learn as much as I could. And that's what the internship or the fellowship's about is learning as much as you can. Because I sat down with the planner, the engineer, the public works guy, that's really where you're going to learn.

Lynn Phillips:

We have a saying in the military, you've seen one unit, you've seen one unit. It's the same in local government. You've seen one city or one county, you've seen one city or county. They all have different organizations and cultures is the other big thing. And just finding that right fit and doing the research up front is important.

Joe Supervielle:

Yeah, and maybe start a little earlier than you think. Whether you have an exact retirement date set or planned or not get involved. As Dean said, even before you apply for a fellowship, get on a local committee for whatever your interest is just to get some experience and exposure early.

Dean Huard:

I would use the power of LinkedIn and one thing I would do too is Alan Broughton, he was one of the first, I saw his press release on LinkedIn that he did it with the city of Coronado in California. But again, it's networking, and one of the things I would do too is when I would go TDY to a post. I'd got to Fort Irwin and then I would set up an office call with a local city manager. I met with the city manager Barstow, I met the one at Eastvale and I still have relationships with them.

This is the nice thing about city government too that I've noticed is everybody wants to help you succeed. Everybody is interested in, they may not have a job because they don't a vacancy, but they're very interested in sharing their experiences and mentorship is very important. It's interesting because we talk about it in the military a lot, having a mentor, being a mentor, but I've never seen it as well done as it is in local government because I can talk to a city manager in another city and they will write me back, they will set up a Zoom call and mentor me through the process.

Joe Supervielle:

Yeah, that's a huge part of it. So just, we hit on it earlier, but one more time. This program is free for local governments, no requirement or obligation to offer or hire full-time position afterwards, although we certainly want to kind of keep working towards that and make it happen as often as possible.

Audience you can go to icma.org/vlgmf or just Google ICMA Veterans, it will come up.

Lynn, can you give us the cohort dates? Because this is kind of a cycling system here, so it's not like you missed it once, it's over, you can jump in whether you want to be a host organization or you're interested in the fellowship itself.

Lynn Phillips:

Absolutely. So we do have set cohort dates. It's a four month cycle and it runs every year on the same cycle with one starting in January, one starting in May, and one starting in September. But we do work with the service members as much as possible to match their timeline because everyone's not separating on those exact dates. So we do work with the service members and I just want to say it's so easy to get involved and become a host organization. All you have to do is sign a host agreement, which is not a contract, doesn't commit the organization to anything. And then if you can be a host when we reach out to you, fantastic. And if not, that's okay too. We'll reach out to someone else. So it's just win-win you cannot lose by getting involved in this program.

Joe Supervielle:

Yeah. So Lynn, what is the next step other than going to that website again, icma.org/vlgmf, what is that?

Lynn Phillips:

A big acronym, Veterans Local Government Management.

Joe Supervielle:

But once they're there, is that agreement on the webpage, do they just contact you? What's the next step? If people just want to learn more without necessarily signing, like literally signing, even though it's not a contract, what do they do next?

Lynn Phillips:

So we should eventually, we will hopefully soon, I say eventually, hopefully very soon, there will be an information link on the webpage where they can put in name and email and I will reach back out to them. But short of that, please reach out to me, Lynn Phillips, 202/962-3551 and I will provide you all of the information and the state associations, you can reach out to your state association as well.

Joe Supervielle:

Okay, and these links will also be on the podcast webpage on icme.org. If you're listening on Apple or Spotify it's right underneath the description. Just scroll down, you'll find the links to hyperlinks to all this. Lynn actually said it, but my last question for Dean was, who is better at acronyms the military or local government?

Dean Huard:

Well, it depends on how you define better. I would say that the military is much more acronym... They definitely use them a lot more. But then again, I've heard local government use their fair share. And I think it helps that in the military you have an acronym. You may not know the actual acronym in the local government, but because we have an acronym mentality, it's not foreign.

Joe Supervielle:

Yeah. I'm still-

Dean Huard:

I think the military wins. Military wins. Yeah.

Joe Supervielle:

Okay.

Dean Huard:

But what's interesting is, one quick comment about trying to give back, because like I said, when I first got into the program I told him I'm probably going to benefit as much as I can. So I have tried to share some, as we say in the military, best practices with city government. And one of them was the other day, from a military standpoint, we do what's called a COP, Common Operating Picture. And it's just a template. And so when I showed that to the city manager, he's like, oh that's interesting that you have all the information right there on one. Because it talks about current ops, future operations may not utilize it, but I'm just again, trying to bridge the gap so that maybe there's some military aspects that local government can benefit from as well.

Joe Supervielle:

And that's what the program's there for, to benefit both sides equally. So Dean and Lynn, thanks for explaining the program today and thanks for your service.

Dean Huard:

Thanks for having us, I appreciate it. Okay,

Lynn Phillips:

Thank you.

 

 

Episode is sponsored by

Guest Information

Lt. Col. Dean Huard, ICMA Fellow, Georgetown, Texas

Lynn Phillips, ICMA senior program manager 
 

Episode Notes

LTC Dean Huard and Lynn Phillips explain the process, benefits, and challenges of ICMA's Veterans in Local Government Management Program for transitioning service members and local governments.

• The program is zero cost for the organization, with no obligation to make a permanent hire.
• What fellows typically do day-to-day to gain critical experience and fill needs for the host organization.
•  Creating a work plan to maximize impact and measure success.
• Transparent and calibrated expectations by the host locations and fellows, including what locations and position-level to target.
   

Cohort dates cycle throughout the year and applications open four months ahead of the typical start dates, but can be adjusted for specific situations:

January - April

May - August (Applications open in January)

September - December

Contact Lynn Phillips at lphillips@icma.org for next steps on becoming a host.

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