Page 8 - Demo

8Now, I%u2019m excited to introduce Keith%u2019s successor, Darryl Lutz, who comes to us from Butler County, where he served as County Engineer for many years. I have no doubt Darryl will continue the excellent work Keith and Norm Bowers did before him in connecting us with KDOT. Please join me in welcoming Darryl!I%u2019d also like to introduce another new member of the KAC family, Amy Addington, who joins us as Membership Engagement Manager. Many of you may have seen her name in emails or on our new KAC Member Community Portal. Amy%u2019s role is to help you, our members, become more engaged with the organization, connect with each other, and make the most of the services we offer. One key feature I encourage you to take advantage of is the new Member Community Portal on our website. This space allows you to communicate with peers, store important resources, register for events, and view the calendar of activities across the organization plus a whole lot more!Additionally, Amy will now be offering our %u201cService Awards Program%u201d year-round. Simply send to her your list of staff and their years of service, and she will ensure you receive the appropriate certificates and pins any month of the year in a timely fashion. Welcome, Amy!I%u2019d also like to recognize the hard work of your peers as they serve on the KAC Governing Board. I%u2019d like to give a special thank you to Frank Williams, Butler County EMS Director and KEMSA representative for serving as KAC President and Governing Board Chair. And thank you to the rest of the governing board members for your dedication and leadership to this organization this past year. We do need to say goodbye to several of our Board Members as well as many of our KAC family. Not returning after the first of the year will be Craig Chamberlin, Commissioner from Dickinson County, C.J. Wetstein from Seward County, Max Dibble, our rural rep. from Phillips County and Heather Elsworth, Neosho County Clerk. It has been my pleasure and my honor to have gotten to work with all of you these past five years! I wish you nothing but the best in your future endeavors! And I understand that for some of you this will be your last conference with us. Please stand and be recognized if you will not be coming back next year due to retirement, a lost election or for some other reason. Currently, we have 101 of the 105 Counties as members. And we appreciate every one of you. As you know, we are a voluntary organization and cannot make anyone join. Unfortunately, we do not have Chautauqua, Cherokee, Harper, or Pawnee counties as members. Remember, as an organization, we are only as strong as our members. And as we lose members, our voice becomes less effective. More diluted. If you ever hear talk in your county about not renewing your KAC membership, please let us know. We would like to have a conversation with decision makers to find out more about what is happening and if there is something we can do to sway that decision. Budget wise, the KAC is strong. Thanks in part to you, our members, and attendees, as well as our vendors and sponsors. Our revenues were strong, but just like you - our expenses are up too. But the Association is on track to end this year in the black for yet another year. I am happy to announce that the Governing Board has approved a $1.18 million dollar budget for next year. Combined with the over $830,000 that we have in the bank, the KAC is financially sound and fiscally responsible. As you well know, Education and Advocacy are two of the most important roles that our organization has. And our work will be cut out for us during this next legislative session. I%u2019m not going to lie; I am concerned with so many new faces coming to Topeka that some of the damaging legislation to local government could get passed. Initiatives such as Government Competition, Dark Store Theory, placing more restrictions on our limited sources of revenue, and more infringements on Home Rule such as the Ban on Plastic Bag Bans could come up again. It will be up to ALL of us to share our county story to educate Legislators to help stop these from happening.Proactively, this next session we will be advocating for a change in the fee structure for automobile titles. We will be advocating for a law change to allow you to publish legal notices on a website and not only in the newspapers that are becoming increasingly continued