TAMIO Thoughts -

09Feb 2022 by Lauren

TAMI Awards Information

TAMI Awards

It’s TAMI Award season and that means it’s time to dig out those kudos emails, screenshot analytics, and dust off your award entry writing skills. Last year, we had almost 450 award entries and we’re hoping for even more this year. What’s New – Best Small Shop We’ve heard your cries, small shop folks! This year we’re introducing the Best Small Shop award category. This is specifically for those who have two or fewer communications professionals in their main communications department/division. We wanted to highlight the great work our one-man-bands (and two-people-bands – it just doesn’t have that same ring) are doing. The way it works – the TAMI Awards Committee and I came up with six major areas of work we do on a regular basis. These areas include…

02Feb 2022 by Lauren

Other duties as assigned can lead to professional growth.

Change, Organization

The time is January 2021, and in the thick of month eight of COVID-19 communications, it happened. All of the responsibilities for the City of Bryan’s 150th Anniversary of Incorporation – the largest celebration in the city since the mid-1990s – were bestowed upon my department. Oh, and that official 150th anniversary date was just around the corner. So, with 10 months and an extremely small budget – in the middle of a pandemic – we set out to plan and execute a year’s worth of historical celebrations and events worthy of a sesquicentennial. Only one small problem: I’ve never been an event planner, and knowing the immense amount of details and skill that go into planning events, I wasn’t sure how we were going to pull this off. But,…

24Jan 2022 by Lauren

Servant Leadership and Communicators

Leadership, TAMIO

When I began brainstorming another TAMIO Thoughts article six months ago, I threw around many ideas. I am a planner. I love making checklists and crossing off items; this makes me feel accomplished somehow. I also like to stay organized and always know what is coming. So, when I signed up to write my TAMIO Thoughts article a few months ago, I decided to write about Department Planning. However, something happened just yesterday that changed my mind. As communicators, not only do we have to be well educated and skilled in our craft, we also have to be servant leaders, especially as public communicators. So, you may be thinking, but I am not a manager; how would the topic of servant leadership apply to me? The answer is simple and…

11Jan 2022 by Lauren

Looking back on 2021 and ahead to 2022.

TAMIO

So often in our jobs as municipal communicators we are racing from one emergency to the next, which means we never have the time to reflect on what we have accomplished, how we did it, and how we can improve. That last step of reflection and celebration is vital. So, with that in mind and as we enter a new year, I wanted to share with you some 2021 TAMIO milestones and how it sets us up for 2022. Association Management The TAMIO Board has consistently said it wants to provide quality educational and networking opportunities to our members at the most reasonable cost possible. That is why you’ll notice that our annual membership dues and conference fees are lower than most others, and it’s why we have yet to…

15Dec 2021 by Lauren

Post-conference and member survey reveals great suggestions for 2022.

TAMIO

Did anyone else have a sigh of relief as the general session of the 2021 TAMIO Annual Conference got underway in August? After 18 months of COVID messaging, executive orders, Zoom calls, and more, TAMIO members were finally able to reconnect in person to do what we do best: network, share, and learn. It was great to be together again. And when we were finally together in one place, there were many new faces. Almost half of the attendees at this year's conference were first-timers. Some because they were new to the job of government communicator and some just new to TAMIO. It was refreshing to see all the new ideas and perspectives.< We appreciate everyone who came to Round Rock and enthusiastically embraced what TAMIO had to offer: keynote speakers…