Week 2:
U.S. Conference of Mayors

June 3, 2014

Monday:

And here we go, week two! Today was Memorial Day, so I celebrated in good ‘ole American-style: Nationals baseball game! Parker, also interning in DC, went with, and I’m now a proud Nats fan. The game was fun, and the atmosphere was great, so we’ll definitely be coming back. There was also a concert and parade in DC, and several smaller concerts and receptions happening around the war memorials. It was really cool way to thank our veterans.

Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday:

I spent the next few days working on the text of the DollarWi$e publication.  After getting those write-ups clean and sending them over to James for more editing, I finished up my environmental and water resources legislation summaries. Working on the summaries was somewhat challenging; I had to condense a 33 page Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, Summary for Policymakers summary into 2 pages – a good test of my ability to pick out important information and put it in an easy-to-use form.

The cool thing about being surrounded by politically informed people is the discussions that are had. Lunchtime is probably my favorite time of the day, because our tech guy, David, and the DollarWi$e coordinator, James, come in and talk about anything and everything that goes on. We cover just about everything, and it’s these conversations that really foster learning for me in the workplace. Everyone at the Conference is really open to questions and takes time to explain different policies or influences on those policies. In order to have a career in law, which is what I’d like to pursue, you must have a really well-rounded idea or understanding of what the law is (who would have thought?). The people I work with really get the policies they are discussing. Discussions aren’t surface level, and they don’t just stick to theoretical ideas. They get into the actual policy, what its implications and real life effects are, and I really appreciate that.

Dave and I also talked about projects that I would be working on, and Dave told me about a meeting that is going to happen sometime in July or August that was going to deal with income inequality and policy remedies, including minimum wage requirements and early education. Well, of course that sounds interesting! We worked out the details of what my project might look like, and we came up with two main parts. First, I’d be writing a paper with clear sections detailing different policies and their effects. Second, I’d be summarizing the information found in one or two pages for a handout that can be used at the meeting, whenever it does take place. The meeting conveniently gives me a timeline, and I’ll have time to really dig into the project after the annual meeting. I told Dave he done good – this topic is going to be very interesting!

After work on Thursday, I went down to the Natural History museum and met up with Parker, and we grabbed some District Taco for supper. Gotta say, better than Pancheros.

Friday:

Today, I was able to sit in on some meetings, including one upstairs in the ‘War Room’. It was my first venture up to 4^th floor, and I sat in on a call with some Mayors and the White House talking about the EPA regulations that are going to be announced Monday. The meeting was informative – not about the EPA announcement or roll-out, but about how communication with the Conference, Mayors, and White House works. Ed Somers, Chief of Staff at USCM, led the call, so I was able to meet him, along with the other summer intern at USCM, Kevin from Harvard. I said I went to Cornell. College.

I finished everything on my end for DollarWi$e, so we’re starting to put that together! I also listened in on different meetings about coordinating speakers for the annual meeting and the layout of different sessions, so it was good to hear the strategy that goes on, which isn’t much different from how we plan things in the organizations I’m involved in at Cornell. Now it’s off to another Nats game, I’ve got a hat and everything so I’m pretty hard-core. We’ll see what the weekend brings!