Knope of the Week: Megan Messmer, City of Florence

After a long holiday break including a brief jump off the fiscal cliff, the Knope of the Week is rested and ready to anoint the standouts in the local government arena for 2013. This year recipients will not only the incredible fame and glory associated with the award, but they will be recognized with a token of appreciation that will only be known by the recipients.

Before we move forward, take a look back at the 52 recipients from 2012. Each recipient will tell you that life has change drastically with the recognition, similar to a lottery winner minus the money and notoriety. ELGL proudly notes that before awarding a Knope of the Week we test each potential recipient for performance enhancing drugs. We also proudly note that those individuals have no idea that they’ve ever been tested.

Now onto the beginning of a new year, the 3rd recipient for 2013 is the……

Megan Messmer

Florence Assistant to the City Manager and ELGL Mastermind

Without Megan, there would be no ELGL. Megan has balanced her graduate studies at PSU, a job, and ELGL for the last couple of years. Today Megan begins her next chapter as the Florence Assistant to the City Manager. Megan will continue to play an active role in ELGL by becoming more involved in a leadership role and less involved with day-to-day management.

Anyone who has benefitted from ELGL, whether it be a new professional connection, a new job lead, or a new passion for the profession, has Megan to thank. She turned an informal group of local government professionals into a formal non-profit with more than 300 members and an actual fund balance.

It is often the little things that we remember and for many of us it is the early ELGL emails which were overwhelmed by a endless line of email addresses. Megan brought ELGL into the 21st century and addressed the issue by working with the League of Oregon Cities and Oregon City County Managers Association to create an ELGL listserve.

For the past two years, Megan has handled the daily management of ELGL with grace and patience. Her skills allowed ELGL to strength relationships with individual members, corporate members, media members, and other professional associations. Perhaps, most importantly, Megan has proven to be a good judge of which new ideas and suggestions are worth ELGL’s time and resources. Many of you would not be pleased or might not even be a member if Megan had not served as ELGL’s reality check.

ELGL tries not to ask too much of its members, as we are all balancing our career and our personal life, but please take a minute to thank Megan for her hard work and to wish her the best in her new job. Megan can be reached at [email protected]

Last Week’s Recipient: Josh Gregor

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