By Debra DeHaney-Howard
February 12, 2007

As the newly appointed chair of the Standing Committee on Membership, Piscataway (NJ) Mayor Brian Wahler opened the January 24 committee meeting by telling members that, “The Conference’s strength is in the commitment and active participation of its members — our organization is only as strong as its members.” Wahler reported on the progress of recruiting and retaining members during the past year. During his briefing, he released a report detailing the overall status of membership and challenged committee members to recruit one new member from their respective state.

Jim Welfley, Director of Information Systems for The U.S. Conference of Mayors, demonstrated some of the new technology the Conference is using to communicate with its members. Welfley first walked the members through the usmayors.org web site, highlighting popular features such as:

• Meet the Mayors: an online database of over 2,000 mayors featuring photos, contact information and election dates;

• U.S. MayorVision: the webcast and video streaming section of usmayors.org featuring over 1,000 video clips of mayors, meeting coverage and interactive webcasts;

• Best Practices Database: an online repository of over 2,000 searchable mayoral best practices; and

• Online Publication Archive: Download publications, reports and surveys produced by the Conference from one dedicated section of usmayors.org.

Welfley then described how the Conference is reaching out to members via e-mail and video e-mail, or v-mail. Through its partnership with CGI, the Conference has been able to communicate with members by sending them an e-mail with a video clip embedded in the e-mail. The video clip can be played on any computer using nearly any media player, thus ensuring the message is read and viewed. Through the use of v-mails, traditional e-mails and faxes, the Conference pushes information out to its membership and key staff to keep them apprised of the latest news. Wahler concluded the meeting by encouraging committee members to utilize the many communication tools offered by the Conference of Mayors.