Week 3:
U.S. Conference of Mayors

June 10, 2014

Before I get into my week, quite update on the weekend! Parker and I took advantage of our residence on the East Coast, and went out to Gettysburg to check out the battlefields. We may or may not have ran through the area where Pickett’s charge took place in the process. The battlefields were quite peaceful; hard to imagine that in those fields over 50,000 soldiers were killed or wounded 150 years ago.

Monday:

Monday ushered in a new week at the Conference of Mayors. Main agenda: prepare for the annual meeting. Dave has really dynamic relationships with quite a few of the mayors, so it’s fun to hear his conversations and see how he interacts with people – not necessarily to get what he wants, but with a purpose to what he does and who he speaks to. One of the things we talked about for my time here was developing the ability to work a room, or have a social confidence when you’re surrounded by people with power. This is definitely a skill I’m interested in working on and improving, and the annual meeting will be a perfect time to exercise.

I also went over and studied at the Library of Congress on Monday, in the main reading room. It’s always been a dream of mine to go in there (you know, with the circular reference desk and rotunda); previous trips to DC have left me looking at the room through a glass wall, but this time, I was able to actually get in. It was like National Treasure II, except I didn’t hijack any book of secrets or anything like that. Maybe next time..

Tuesday:

I spent a lot of time working on materials for Dave’s task force meeting in Dallas. I looked up information from the International Trade Administration and picked out what would be useful for the meeting. I also kept working on my WRRDA summary and found other supporting documents that might be of use to Dave. My research experience at Cornell was really put to use here. Separating the useful from the less useful – the wheat from the chaff, as it were – is a skill that grows with practice, and I welcome such practice here.

Wednesday:

Today was a good day. I familiarized myself with some products that Dave needed to know about for some communication with Mayors at the annual meeting, most notably, BlueBird, the new pre-paid card option available through American Express in partnership with Walmart. USCM task force Council on Metro Economies and the New American City is concerned with financial literacy (hence, DollarWi$e), and American Express recently sponsored the movie ‘Spent’, a documentary about banking in America designed to highlight where Americans are overspending due to a lack of knowledge about the banking system, and how to remedy that. I will certainly be watching this documentary, partially for the information itself, and partially to see how it lines up with the Council’s objectives.

We also were able to get some creative juices flowing and picked out some colors for a new DollarWi$e logo. Jillian and I really worked to get colors that would be a little more fresh than the kelly-green and deep gold that characterized the logo to-date.

Thursday:

A relaxed day at the office, today was more about the DollarWi$e publication. We went through several drafts of color schemes and settled on certain characteristics that we definitely wanted. It was fun to be involved in this part of the process, as I’ve always found branding and advertising quite intriguing. The guy who is in charge of editing the publication got back to us after we told him the direction we wanted to go, and the new color scheme looks great! It’s a little more up-beat, exactly the thing Jillian was looking for. Working on this publication has really given me a glimpse into even the smallest details of an organization. Every little thing is a decision made by someone in the office; choices must be made on even the most trivial of matters, and this is really where I get to see the nuts and bolts of the organization I’m working with.

The Weekend:

I took Friday off to see my brother and study some LSAT. My brother came to DC on a 4-H trip, so he’s been here for 8 days, and what better place to connect with your little bro than Washington DC? I was also able to meet up with some other Cornellians in DC, Tommy and Trevor. It’ll be fun to have them out here! I also took a few more LSAT tests, one Friday, one on Sunday, and a little one on Saturday (that was my brain rest day). The test is on Monday, so I’m praying that it goes well, and it’ll be back to the USCM after that!