2014…A Year for Growth and Influence
The year 2013 brought some challenges to NCRCO, not unlike challenges people and
businesses
face every day. The annual meeting in Fort Worth, Texas was
a positive step toward the future for our team. We elected officers
for the year and added some new faces on our Board. We heard a
challenging message from Texas Congressman Joe Barton during our
Reception on what lies ahead for the GOP.
That was then and this now. We made some good strides, but now
we need to continue the momentum. My goal as your President is to
make our meetings more than just a networking opportunity. I want
us to look for issues at the federal level which are important to NACo, but also review the
kinds of issues that allow NCRCO to provide constructive problem solving leadership. I
want us to bring in speakers that challenge us in our service to our county and our nation.
I'm asking you to support me and our Board in achieving the following goals:
1. We will use the bulk of each business meeting to highlight one or two issues that
are important to NACo and are the kind of issue on which we can and should provide
leadership direction. In order to get the most value out of the business meetings, each
issue should be vetted well in advance of the meeting by our Board of Directors and
those chosen, then made available to all NCRCO members. On January 15th our Board
had a conference call and discussed several possibilities. We settled on an important
issue that the EPA is trying to sneak in the "regulation door" regarding the Clean Water
Act. For those that remember the floor victory at a NACo Annual Meeting a few years
ago regarding the "Navigable Water" language, this is another covert attempt on this
issue. Our Treasurer, Commissioner Joe Briggs, along with Board members Judge Gary
Moore band Commissioner Bill Doherty, comprise our NCRCO Issues Committee. Joe
Briggs is providing more detail on this important matter in another article in this January's newsletter.
You can read the article and come prepared to discuss it in detail at the NCRCO
business meeting in Washington, DC. If we don't take on substantive issues, I'm not
sure we have a viable reason to continue to exist.
2. We are seeking to bring speakers to our NCRCO Receptions that challenge us and
encourage us in our work as county leaders across this wonderful nation. Congressman
Joe Barton was an excellent beginning. Your NCRCO leadership are working with me
to aggressively bring in inspiring and influential leaders of the GOP from across the
United States to address us. We are likely not to agree with every speaker on every
issue. But it can't simply be about agreement. I believe we need to be challenged to
know and understand what we believe and why. Sometimes we are guilty of believing or
accepting a position because it's the "official party position." Let me suggest that is not a
good reason. Let's be willing to dig in and understand the issues and principles involved
and then work to solve whatever the challenge may be. We are committed to bring in
speakers that challenge us to do just that.
If we do these two things well in 2014 my third goal will take care of itself. I want to see our membership and
event attendance grow to between 140 and 190 by our Summer meeting in New Orleans.
If we are going to be influential at the national level as we have been in the past, then we need you to join us.
Will you commit to be part of NCRCO's future? Please make plans now to join us at the Legislative Conference
in Washington DC at the DC Hilton.
NCRCO's future depends on what we do with the opportunity given to us. I know we are all very busy and
most of us never have enough time. I'm reminded of the words of my late Aunt Alice. Whenever I would tell
her I didn't have time for something, she would say; “there is never enough time, you need to make time.” She was right. Let's make time to help grow the positive influence of NCRCO within county government in
2014.
Christian Leinbach
President
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