Join MTAS HR Consultant, John Grubbs, for a three-part series that walks you through the performance management process from the beginning of an evaluation period to the next cycle. Performance management is the continuous process of identifying, measuring, and developing the performance of individuals and teams and aligning performance with the strategic goals of the organization. From no process to a formal process, this series is suitable for organizations at all stages of their performance management process.Credits: 1 hour of CMFO or CPE March 20, 2024 – Intro to Performance Management This session will provide a broad overview of performance management, the importance of linking performance to organizational mission and determining what and how to measure results and behaviors. June 5, 2024 – Setting Performance Goals This session will explore goal setting, defining and setting expectations and providing resources to guide goal accomplishment. It will also include information on individual development plans. November 13, 2024 – Evaluating Performance The series concludes with a look at evaluating performance including strategies for successful performance discussions and reviewing results and related performance of established goals.
NEW in 2024 – join us for a three-part social media series for your communication government leader. The series will begin March 28 with an introductory session about social media platforms in general, which ones to use for what, best times to post, content that earns engagement, and more. The second session, April 25, will focus on developing content and using various tools to manage social platforms The third class, May 30, will be a quick dive into analytics and reporting – After all, if you are going to post, you want your audience to engage with it! Each class will be taught by Senior Communications and Public Relations expert, Deanna Lambert and will be hosted virtually beginning at 8:30-10:30 a.m. CT. Social Media 2024-What You Need to Know Now: March 28 This session will provide an overview of social platforms, content examples, templates, and best times to post to drive engagement for your organization. This class is for the government leader tasked with leading communication strategy or the everyday user who wants to use social media more to share job openings, recruit talent or inform about your entity’s positive work. Social Media Tools: April 25 This session will focus on developing content that drives engagement and an introduction to various tools to help you manage social platforms. Geared toward Communications team members who want to streamline systems, or recruit brand ambassadors to help with content for your small department, or often a department of one. You will learn ways to do more with less, cross promote material and use templates to save time. We will explore back-end tools to learn how to schedule and manage the evolution of artificial content for optimal engagement and how do you use it to your advantage? Canva, Artificial Intelligence, Chap GPT, Cap cut, Asana to schedule content – whether you need more team members or more content – this is the class for you to learn how to do it all quicker with modern tools. Analytics and what Your Social Media Numbers Mean: May 30 First explained, your audience -learn who you are engaging with most and when. Then, identifying your agency or organization’s goal for social media. Plus, using analytics to discover how best to connect with your audience to reach true engagement.
Cash management will examine cash handling, flow, and forecasting so that a municipal finance officer will be aware of having sufficient cash liquidity to meet disbursement requirements. Options for idle cash will be discussed. An overview of grants management will be presented along with a brief introduction of best practices.
Cash management will examine cash handling, flow, and forecasting so that a municipal finance officer will be aware of having sufficient cash liquidity to meet disbursement requirements. Options for idle cash will be discussed. An overview of grants management will be presented along with a brief introduction of best practices.
Cash management will examine cash handling, flow, and forecasting so that a municipal finance officer will be aware of having sufficient cash liquidity to meet disbursement requirements. Options for idle cash will be discussed. An overview of grants management will be presented along with a brief introduction of best practices.
MTAS purchasing guide and sample purchasing procedures (2024 update)
Tennessee has many general laws that govern purchasing by municipalities including the 1983 Municipal Purchasing Law, the Competitive Sealed Proposals provisions under T.C.A. 12-3-1207, the Contracts for Professional Services provisions under T.C.A. 12-3-1209 and 12-4-107, the Interlocal Cooperation Act, the Iran Divestment Act, etc.
The MTAS Purchasing Guide provides a general overview and citations for those general laws, and the accompanying MTAS Sample Purchasing Procedures contain best practices for implementing the state and federal regulations.
Additionally, the MTAS Purcgasing Policy Checkist is provided to ensure that the most important laws, processes and required authorizations are included in the purchasing policy.
Management evaluation of the planning, codes and engineering departments for the city of Brentwood, Tennessee
This is a management evaluation that was prepared for the City of Brentwood to evaluate the Building/Planning and Engineering Departments and to evaluate the possible consolidation of these departments into a single development services department. The attachments also include organizational diagrams that are within the report but were utilized for presenting the organizational structure recommendations including a scenario to consolidate departmental functions.
The City of Brentwood requested a management evaluation of the Planning & Codes and Engineering Departments that provided a recommendation to analyze existing processes and procedures for various types of plan review and permitting processes. Following the management evaluation, MTAS facilitated a series of work sessions with department staff to prepare detailed flow charts and diagrams for a variety of plan review, permitting, and inspection services provided by each department. During the preparation of the various flow charts, opportunities for streamlining and clarifying processes and procedures were identified and incorporated into the charts. The work sessions provided meaningful collaboration between departments to provide efficient and straightforward processes. The attached flow charts were prepared as part of the facilitation process.
Capital improvement plan for the town of Atoka, Tennessee
The Town of Atoka requested technical assistance from MTAS for the preparation and adoption of its first capital improvement plan. Utilizing a guideline and templates prepared in 2022 by MTAS, Chuck Downham, MTAS Management Consultant, and Kay Stegall, MTAS Finance and Accounting Consultant, initiated the plan preparation process with the Town Administrator and staff. An initial PPT presentation was provided to Town staff outlining the importance of a capital improvement plan and the process that would be followed in preparing a draft plan. Since this was the Town’s first capital improvement plan, it was decided to utilize a five-year planning period initially with the understanding the planning period could be expanded in future years based on long-term capital project needs of the municipality.
Following the kick-off meeting, department heads were given a Capital Needs Worksheet prepared in Excel to identify and prioritize capital projects within their respective department. The Capital Needs Worksheet provided essential information about each capital project including a description, justification, estimated capital cost, estimated operational costs, and prioritization. MTAS consultants worked closely with department heads to ensure completeness of documentation for each capital project including the preparation of detailed project descriptions and sound justifications for every project.
Each department head was requested to identify 3 to 5 capital projects for inclusion in the capital improvement plan for their respective department and to also provide a funding strategy including possible funding source(s) for each project. Each department head submitted their prioritized capital needs worksheets to assemble into a master worksheet containing all capital improvement requests. The master worksheet is organized by department and capital projects are presented in the priority requested by each department head. Data and information from each capital needs worksheet was transposed to the summary worksheet including description, estimated capital expense, estimated operating expense, implementation year, and funding sources.
Some department heads identified debt financing as a possible funding source for certain capital projects involving significant project cost. In order to provide decision-makers with a better understanding of current debt obligations through the planning period and beyond, MTAS consultants prepared a debt summary statement as part of the capital improvement plan summary worksheet. A review of the Town’s adopted debt management policy was also performed and it was recommended the Town consider reevaluating and updating their debt management policy given future capital project needs as identified in the capital improvement plan.
A sample resolution was prepared for consideration by the governing body containing a capital improvement plan policy outlining the process for preparing, adopting, amending and implementing a capital improvement plan. MTAS staff also prepared a draft resolution to adopt the capital improvement plan with the summary worksheet serving as an exhibit to the resolution.
