Acknowledgments
The creation of the DC Society of Certified Pubic Managers as well as its web site have required a great deal of work by many individuals with key support from several organizations. As well, several companies and individuals have generously donated technical tools and assistance to help build the web site. While many helped, several key individuals and organizations deserve special recognition for the contributions and assistance they have provided in creating and sustaining the Society and implementing this web site.
Startup: Capital Area CPM Program and Society
Regina Owens: Without question, Regina Owens is the key individual behind the Society’s creation. Ms. Owens was one of the first members of the first class of CPMs in the Washington, DC Metropolitan Area. A government training professional, Regina was also a strong voice for the initial creation of the Certified Public Manager program under the Administration of then Mayor Marion Barry and City Administrator Michael Rogers, when the CPM concept first gained the attention of the District’s and the region’s leadership.
A District of Columbia Government employee when she became a CPM, Regina
was THE key motivating force for program graduates to band together
and form the local CPM Society following the graduation of the first
class of CPMs in July, 1998. Ms. Owens served not only as founder
of the Society, but as its first President for several years. Today,
almost 10 years since the first talk of implementing a CPM program
began in the nation’s capital city, Regina continues to serve as
an advisor to the Society and its officers on an as needed basis.
Thanks, Regina.
CPM Program creators: Since the CPM Society is a direct outgrowth of the CPM training program, we owe much to those that brought the program to the Washington, DC region. As we all know, determining those most responsible for the creation of a successful program is always more difficult than it would be for an unsuccessful project. The quick success of the CPM program in Washington, DC made it difficult to track those truly most responsible for starting the program. However, it is possible to acknowledge a small handful of key people and organizations that were clearly present at the creation: The CPM program came to be under the leadership of then DC Mayor Marion Barry and City Administrator Michael Rogers, working with George Washington University’s Ronald Sanders to create the school’s Center for Excellence in Municipal Management, backed by significant support from the Fannie Mae and the Cafritz Foundations. Responsibility for the expansion of the CPM program from its District base to its current, broad, regional coverage is easier to determine: upon moving from the DC Government to become Executive Director of the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments, Michael Rogers spread the CPM training philosophy to an additional 19 governments.
Ongoing Support and Member Benefits
The Center for Excellence in Municipal Management (CEMM): As any local CPM can atest, the staff at the CEMM has always been exceptionably helpful to students pursuing their CPM certifications. The Society, too, is grateful to all of the Center’s staff, most of whom are also students. However, we would particularly like to thank Natalie Houghtby-Haddon and James Robinson, past and current Executive Directors of the CEMM, respectively, for their constant and ongoing support of the Society, along with Matthew Fairholm the program’s initial academic directory. Note: In 2005, the CEMM changed its name to the Center for Excellence in Public Leadership, denoting a broadening of its work and a shift from its original purpose of serving only to provide CPM training in partnership with the region’s local governments, to providing a wider range of leadership training to other levels of government, too.
Corel Corporation. As one of the earliest firms in the PC revolution, the Corel Corporation has little direct involvement in public management, but it is known as a leading provider of software to goverment and businesses. Corel generously offered to implement a discount software program for all members of the DC Society of Certified Public Managers. By making various products from their business and consumer software product lines available at very substantial discounts to Society members, Corel helping the Society provide a very useful and valuable benefit to Certified Public Managers, and we encourage members to take advantage of the product discounts offered. In fact, a fair proportion of the content of the Society’s web site has been produced using Corel tools. We are grateful for their support and assistance in providing a valuable benefit for Society members.
Daly Computer: The Society’s discount arrangement with Corel required a retail firm to handle the actual transactions with members. Daly Computer, a small, local, minority business based in Maryland quickly offered its assistance to serve Society members. Daly is an 18 year old firm specializing in technology services for the public sector, including state-wide contracts in Maryland and Virginia, and services to District Government agencies.
Governing Magazine: Our thanks to Peter Harkness and Governing Magazine both for the benefit they are providing to Society members in the form of subscriptions, as well as the constant reminder to "reinvent" government, ourselves, the CPM Society, and anything else that isn't working quite as well as it can or should. In particular, our thanks to Paula Lawrence, Circulation Director, for her tireless assistance in working out the necessary logistics for this benefit program.
The Pubic Manager: When the first class of CPM’s graduated from the
Program for Excellence in Municipal Management CPM program, they
received a one year subscription to The Public Manager (TPM), the
30 year old journal dedicated to serving practicing pubic managers
at various levels of government. The Society followed that initial
partnership with a discount arrangement to allow members to continue
their readership and, in late 2005, the Society teamed with TPM to
provide a free one year subscription to all members joining during
special membership drive. In the future, all Society members will
receive the electronic edition of TPM as an ongoing benefit of their
membership. The Public Manager and the Society are working to build
on the existing partnership by encouraging CPMs to become authors
of articles in TPM. Contact Danny Weiss for additional information
on becoming a CPM author.
Technical Assistance and Software Donations
If only the creation of a web site was the simple, "drag and drop," "what you see is what you get" task that software commercials would have us believe! Because it is much more of learning and character building experience than that, our webmaster especially wants to thank the following for their donations of software tools and technical assistance.
xFx software: A web site is a collection of data, a library of sorts. When done well, the pointers to the data that a site user wants to find, often called “menus” or just referred to as site navigation, are almost unnoticeable, like an electronic card catalog that is very easy to use. The Society is fortunate that xFx Software donated a copy of its DHTML Menu Builder software for use in the implementation of the new CPM web site. The design and implementation of the Society's new web site simply would not have been possible without the donation of the menu builder software and the assistance of xFx Software's technical staff, notably Xavier Flix.
The staff of Web Access Strategies has been a generous technical advisor in the development of the Society's web site. While the site makes use of key utility programs purchased from Web Access Strategies, they have generously donated advice and technical assistance well above and beyond those small purchases and have been an invaluable resource in resolving technical issues concerning the site's design. Web Access Strategies, a small Maryland certified woman-owned business, is a web design, development, and consulting company specializing in web sites that are accessible to all.
Assorted Internet Web Hosting: Our web hosting company deserves an honorable mention not because they donated services, the Society pays for its Internet service, but because of the exceptional support and technical assistance they have provided; services which have been invaluable in establishing and managing this site. Particular thanks to Brian Teeter and Brian Logsdon at Assorted Internet.