NACo Annual Conference

State Association Partners:

Below are two important updates:

1. The NACo Board of Directors made the difficult decision to cancel the Annual Conference and proceed with a virtual Annual Business Meeting, including our election for 2nd Vice President, bylaws amendments and other association business.  NACo is planning the virtual annual business meeting for July 20 at 2 p.m. EDT on a secure online platform with the ability of our members to vote in accordance with procedures outlined in our bylaws (Article X). For more details, see the NACo Board Action Memo on page 13 of the attachment, including our process for the annual business meeting.
   1. We will be communicating with the full membership on Monday or Tuesday next week, including the refund process for registration fees and for hotel cancellation refunds (these are two separate processes – NACo will refund all conference registration fees while the hotels handles the lodging refunds).
   2. Registration for this year’s virtual business meeting will be unlimited and free for each member county. However, each participant must still complete the registration process and each county must still designate its voting delegate(s), including authorization for either its state association or another county within its state, to cast its votes by submitting a completed credentials voting form as part of the event registration process.
   3. We are also planning to host a virtual town hall meeting on Monday, July 13, at 4 p.m. EDT that will include:
      • 2nd Vice President candidates forum moderated by the Nominating Committee chair
      • Overview of proposed bylaws amendments
      • Status report on voting delegate credentials totals
      • Review of NACo policy resolutions
   4. NACo is establishing an online portal for state associations and official candidates for 2nd Vice President to track the registration and credentials process. We are also planning to provide a voting credentials status update for 2nd Vice President candidates and state associations on Saturday, July 18. More information is forthcoming on the actual election, as we are evaluating technology for secure voting.
   5. We are also continue with the NACo presidential appointment process for committee chairs and vice chairs and other NACo presidential appointments. We are also planning to make major enhancements to the state association nomination process for NACo committees this summer with a new online portal and tracking system. Our IT team has made major progress with our IT platforms in recent months.

2. Federal advocacy – With the House set to pass the HEROES Act later today, the real action will shift to the US Senate. Our leg team is working on a fresh strategy for key Senate targets and our specific asks. We obviously need more Republican support, especially for our narrower county funding within the broader HEROES Act. We are looking at ways to engage all county employees, suppliers and users of county services; paid media and earned media and social media targets; key grasstops leaders for media opportunities and calls; and other strategic partners to mobilize like the home builders (I.e. NAHB has been supporting our congressional requests, understanding that general fund cuts to counties will result in higher building fees!)  We realize that many of you are now dealing with your state legislatures and revised state budgets so it is tough to balance federal and state actions. We appreciate any and all help.

Below are a few NACo resources that we encourage your to share and use:

1. NACo CARES Act Treasury CRF Plans – we are building out a new micro site to track and share both (1) urban county plans for their CRF money (internal use and external partner use) and (2) state government plans to sub allocate CRF dollars to counties and cities. Please send us any and all information on how your state is suballocating more to counties and how your urban counties are allocating their money!
   https://www.naco.org/covid19/coronavirus-relief-fund
2. NACo Preliminary Analysis of County Fiscal Impact and Budgets:
   https://www.naco.org/resources/analysis-fiscal-impact-covid-19-county-finances
3. We Are Counties – Thank You Heroes (New ad released last night with #We Are Counties pictures of members)
   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DJ_8pe7Ee-g&feature=youtu.be
4. Counties Matter:  COVID-19 Role of America’s Counties (Whiteboard video)
   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EJe1jh8r_V4

Thanks again.

Matt Chase
NACo