With all that is happening I wrestled with which topic to choose for this week’s column. In the end, instead of a report on a goal or discussion of a process, I thought I’d talk a little bit about leadership and what it means to me.
Leadership comes in many forms and sizes. Some would stay that the world’s dictators are leaders. By definition – “to guide in direction, course, action, opinion, etc.” – they are. Leaders lead by direction, suggestion, and action. However a dictatorship is not a form of leadership willingly embraced by our culture. We are a democracy.
In my view, bringing people together to discuss, debate, and take part in the government that governs their daily activities is leadership. Colchester’s boards and commissions are an important part of that process, as are the many task specific committees and volunteer activities carried out by our residents. Those boards and commissions number over 27 with more than 240 volunteers giving their time, energy, and talents to our town. A year ago, many of our commissions and committees were having trouble meeting; they had too many positions unfilled and could not meet quorum requirements. The Selectman’s office worked closely with the chairs of the boards and commissions to recruit new individuals for those positions and was successful. Today, we have only six openings in total for all boards combined
and we’ve created several new volunteer opportunities for people of all ages. We owe all of those incredible people our thanks for giving to our community over and over and over again.
Allowing the elected and appointed boards, commissions, and committees to do their work and providing them assistance, training, and direction as needed to make good decisions for our residents is a key component to recruiting and maintaining volunteers. Providing a good working environment as well as support from the leader is a proven method to keep volunteers engaged and involved. At the same time, a municipal leader must work closely with staff, residents, and others to make day-to-day decisions about everything from “can we cut this tree down to make a parking lot” to budgets to personnel issues.
There was a comment made in this week’s paper about how not voting along party lines is a sign of lack of leadership. I would argue that not voting along party lines is a sign of leadership at any level. Once a person is elected to lead a municipality, politics should have no place in decision making – the decision should be made on the basis of what’s good for the Town.
In order to be able to make wise decisions, however, you must take the time and make opportunities to listen to residents, business owners, and others whose lives and decisions impact Colchester. Continued growth of knowledge and skills is important. Attendance at classes, and seminars, engaging in hands-on work of the staff, and learning from residents, staff and other professionals is all in a day’s work. This is why it’s important for your elected officials to hear from you during this budget season. There are three important dates to mark on your calendar: April 20th or 21st -- the presentation of the budget to the town (both evenings are the same presentation); May 5th – the town meeting to send the budget to referendum; and May 12th
– referendum vote for the budget.
The bottom line is that leadership is about making hard decisions and doing what you think is right for the good of the Town whether or not that decision is popular. Thank you to our many volunteers for all that you do on behalf of our town.
Previous Selectman Notes can be viewed at
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