Happy anniversary to N.Y. senior exercise program

Happy 10th anniversary to the Dutchess County (N.Y.) Office for the Aging's Senior Exercise Program! They received a 2005 NACo Achievement Award and it's great they are keeping up the good work and good health there in Dutchess County.

Center helps families deal with issues of death

Lyndsay Leonelli wrote a wonderful story today for the San Diego Union-Tribune on the Bereavement Center at the San Diego County Medical Examiner’s Office. The center is a tremendous example of an essential county service that too often goes unnoticed. The article points out that the center was a recipient of a 2009 NACo Achievement Award. As the article says, the center's chaplain, Joe Davis, worked with the Medical Examiner’s Office to create the Bereavement Center in 2006 and is one of only five like it in the nation. Unfortunately, sad and tragic events happen in life. But in San Diego County, there's extra assistance available to help families cope with heartache.

NACo media relations webinar success

We had a great webinar yesterday on media relations for county officials in tough times. National Association of County Information Officers (NACIO) President Bret Scott offered tips on answering questions from reporters; Madison County, Mississippi Supervisor D.I. Smith discussed his experiences using social media such as Facebook and Twitter as a county official. I gave my best advice on how county officials can make the most of conference and meetings attendance. We had close to 200 folks participate. Interesting to me was the result of one of the quick polls we took: 53% of participants (elected & appointed county officials as well as county and state association of counties staff) said their county's relationship with the local media was good to excellent; 43% said it was fair to good; and only 4% said it was fair to bad.

NACo media relations webinar

I'm very excited about tomorrow's media relations webinar for our county members. Hopefully we'll offer some useful advice and have good discussions. Joining me as presenters are Bret Scott, president of the National Association of County Information Officers (NACIO) and D.I. Smith, Supervisor, Madison County, Miss.