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It’s tradition that the last official duty as the outgoing president is to write an article reflecting back on your year as president. Well, to be honest, I’m struggling because I find it more exciting to look forward and, in this case, imagine what new possibilities may exist for the chapter.

So, this may not surprise you, I’m going with a hybrid approach.

Through the hard work of many very talented volunteers, the chapter completed a number of great things over the past few years, and is now positioned to accomplish many more great things in the years to come. The list is exhaustive!

Our new, “smoking hot” (as JC has named it) web site was created to be the hub for all chapter and committee activities. It truly is awesome and continues to be refined to add things like online payments to make our lives easier and to make the web site even more useful. I encourage you to check it out.

The future of the chapter is in great hands with in-coming President John Rodeberg taking over the reins. I’ve known John for years, and I’m looking forward to him leading us through some very exciting times, including beginning some very cool chapter initiatives.

One such initiative recently became a reality, and that is to host another national congress. The chapter was recently notified that Minneapolis was chosen to host the 2016 APWA International Public Works Congress and Exposition. How cool is that!

Hosting the 2016 Congress will give all chapter members the unique opportunity to attend a national congress right here in our own backyard. Hosting the congress will, however, be a lot of work and we will need a lot of volunteers.

I encourage everyone to consider helping out because you will  get a true sense of what Congress is all about. I also want to assure you that volunteering will be a joy, not a job, because the co-chairs of the chapter’s 2016 Congress Committee -- Jeannine Clancy and Angela Popenhagen -- are extremely organized and already have plans to make this Congress memorable for all.

I want to extend a heartfelt thanks to all of the chapter’s dedicated volunteers. Without you, all the great things that were accomplished over the past few years would have been just a dream, and not a reality.

Finally, a big thank you to Pat Schutrop, our chapter assistant. Pat makes volunteering within the chapter so easy -- she makes things happen and keeps the chapter running like a well-oiled machine.

Thanks to all of you!