Weekly Strategy Meetings

Held every Friday! This meeting is light and basically an overview of what happened this week. This week was rather easy since we did not have many meetings but the office reviewed the next two weeks and it is very busy. I'm coming to an end with my internship so I'll miss those meetings. The Government Relations department has to submit to the City Manager a recap of what happened in local, county, state, and federal levels of government and where we are with the projects and lobbying. Whatever was discussed in the meeting was inserted in the memo. We also watched a short film (below) and the office said bye to me and the other intern.

Our office motto is Keep Calm and Carry On. The reason for why I named my blog "Keep Calm and Carry On" is for when we became frustrated or overloaded with work, we repeated this saying. We all have a notebook or picture of the poster on our desk. Karen made sure everyone had it near them and even a few people have it as their background on their phones. Lobbying is a stressful job as I heard stories from Karen, John Wayne, and Thomas. One story included a passage of a bill and the office stayed all night to prepare for a meeting with the Governor early the next morning. One intern came in early just to drive everyone to the meeting at the State Capitol. Every strategy meetings includes a trivia question or video. At this meeting we found out what Keep Calm and Carry On meant.

This is the video we watched about the origins of Keep Calm and Carry On. Enjoy!

love the little things

What I love about my internship is the reading of periodicals like New York Times, Arizona Republic, Governing, AZ Capitol Times, AZ Business Weekly. The office receives paper and on-line subscriptions to various newspapers and periodicals. We read them to stay up to date on what is being said in the media. I'm used to reading NY Times on a daily basis but stopped when they started the 10 articles per month rule. Since my internship ended I have not had the time to keep up with reading daily due to this rule so I miss my daily opportunity to read.

Another thing I love about my internship is the location of the nearest Starbucks. It is located on the first floor of City Hall. On my first day I was taken on a tour of the building and we ended at Starbucks. I love Starbucks so much that I have a gold member card where I earn rewards for drinking coffee so much. The staff are very friendly and if someone goes there a lot they remember your drink order. What is special about this location is that half of the sales goes to St. Joseph's Children's Hospital and the other half to the staff's wages. Starbucks very rarely gives away charitable locations such as the one in City Hall so Phoenix is lucky. I was always hesitant about paying $5 for a cup of coffee but not at this location.

Interview Skills

The Career Center offers students help with interviews, cover letters, resumes and anything else related to finding a job. I attended a seminar about a new resource. The resource is called Interview Stream. It is a website that allows a student to perform a series of mock interviews by videotaping through web cam. The student is asked a series of interview questions and then the program allows them to review the responses for performance evaluation. The software is easy to use and if still having trouble there are tutorials of what to do. The program also offers training modules that a student can watch to learn helpful tips on how to ace an interview. There are also expert tips to give general tips on succeeding during the entire interview process. This software is genius as it provides a student a chance to practice anywhere and at anytime.

Federal RFP

The whole office needed help with researching different firms that were looking to represent (lobby for) Phoenix in Washington. I liked this assignment because I had to the chance to dig up dirt on those wanting to represent. Each office member split up firms so every person had to research. Since the City put out a federal request for proposal (RFP), this information was beneficial to those who made the final decision in hiring. Since Phoenix does not have an office in Washington, we felt that it was important to find a firm that could accurately represent us and fight for our needs. The decision was not made until after I ended my internship but I read in the Arizona Republic that Phoenix decided on two law firms to represent us. I'm happy with the two firms they chose since each one has different qualifications to bring to the table.

Hello Governor (in my excellent English accent)

I was able to attend a meeting with one of the Governor's task forces at the State Capital. It is the Transaction Privilege Tax Simplification Task Force (TPT). Gov. Brewer signed an Executive Order establishing TPT. The task force consists of tax experts, municipal representatives, business owners, and others who have an influence on Arizona's sales tax code. The sales tax code is considered to be the nation's most complex and the TPT works to simplify taxpayer frustration. Following the Executive Order Gov. Brewer signed HB2815 into law, which is a tax-reform package aimed at increasing job creation and economic development. The TPT must report their findings to the Governor, Speaker of the House and Senate President no later than December 31, 2012.

The first meeting of the task force included an overview of Arizona's tax system, an introduction into TPT, differences between the model city tax code and state statute. They also decided on future meeting times and who would break up into working groups. The public also had time to ask questions then the meeting was adjourned. During the meeting, I had an embarrassing moment. I turned my phone to silent but did not know that I had an alarm set. Even though my phone was on silent it went off due to the alarm. Sitting in front of the room I disrupted the entire meeting and felt terrible. I now know to check all settings, or just leave my phone at the office or in my car.

Website for TPT:
http://www.azgovernor.gov/TPT/index.asp

Oh look more meetings!

I loved every meeting I've attended, whether it was at MAG, the League, or the Chamber of Commerce, but today's meeting almost put me to sleep. Sorry John Wayne. This meeting was at the Phoenix Chamber of Commerce with the Tax and Budget Committee. It was the first meeting of the season and they were meeting to edit their guidelines and vision. JW explained to me that this was a room full of lawyers and lobbyists that make our laws, so every word and sentence had to make perfect sense and not be redundant. The whole document explaining their mission, goals, vision, and guidelines took a couple hours to edit. What seemed like a good sentence to me was not good enough for the room full of committee members. The meeting ended at 3 and there was still more edits to be made so they saved them for the next meeting.

Dressing up for a Conference Call

Following my research on Phoenix being a healthy city and menu labeling, the city was invited to be a part of the Let's Move Campaign committee. The committee involves other cities, the First Lady and her staff, the White House's head chef, and a few other organizations. My superiors thought I would be helpful in attending the conference call because of the research I did and could give my opinions. I was able to listen in along with the Chief of Staff for a Council Member. Even though it was a conference call, I dressed up for the meeting because of who would be present. I value what was discussed because various organizations are working together to lower obesity rates in America by starting with children. If the children learn what is good and bad eating then it is possible to lower the nation's obesity rates.

The website for Let's Move:
http://www.letsmove.gov