8:00 AM - Check in & Complimentary Continental Breakfast
Head downstairs to the conference room to pick up your badge and then get yourself settled and enjoy some pastries, coffee, and tea. 

8:30 AM - 8:45 AM | Welcome & Summit Kickoff
Let’s take a moment to set expectations, do a few introductions, and point out where the therapy chairs are. 

8:45 AM - 9:15 AM | Local Government in 2025: Progress, Pitfalls & Potholes – A Candid Look at Where We Stand
We’ll kick things off with a pulse check on the state of local government in 2025. In this roundtable discussion, you’ll have the chance to have open and honest conversations on what’s working, what’s unraveling, and what’s stuck in bureaucratic quicksand with peers who understand the reality of this work. 

Format: Roundtable Discussion

9:15 AM - 10:30 AM | Retention and Recruitment: Hiring & Keeping Great Employees in Local Government
It’s been a year since we last tackled the ongoing challenge of municipal recruitment and retention, and while we didn’t solve it in one hour last time, we’re back to continue the conversation. This session won’t promise a magic solution, but it will give us the chance to share what’s worked (or not worked) over the past year and explore new ideas. We’ll mix discussion and hands-on work as we select specific retention and/or recruitment problems to focus on. Then, we’ll create non-salary based solutions with practical, actionable steps to get you started on improving your workplace.

Format: Workshop

10:30 AM - 10:45 AM | Break

10:45 AM - 12:00 PM | Selectboard Onboarding, Orientation, & Relations 

As professional managers we are up to our eyeballs in education, training, and professional development about how to be successful in municipal government. As we know, this is not the experience of all elected officials and that can have significant consequences. Although many of us are offering new trainings for employees who don’t have all the technical expertise to help them succeed, are we doing the same thing for elected officials? In this workshop, we’ll share experiences, best practices, and worst practices about how we set up elected officials for understanding their roles/responsibilities, building trust, engaging with stakeholders, supporting staff, prioritizing goals, and ultimately being effective in their roles. This is related to a new workshop being developed by Rethink Local for the Vermont League of Cities and Towns, so your experience will also help shape what VLCT offers, and which we hope expands to New Hampshire as well!  

Format: Workshop 

12:00 PM - 1:30 PM | Lunch
Grab lunch with your colleagues at the Inn or in Woodstock (Lunch is not provided on Day 1).

1:30 PM - 2:30 PM | The Town Manager’s Origin Story 
Do you remember when you got your first town manager job, full of excitement but unsure where to start? Yeah, me neither! We’ve always had it all figured out, right? Just kidding! In this session, we’ll sit down with Maureen Hebert, Director of Strategic Initiatives and Employer Partnerships for PACE at UVM to talk about professional development for town managers. Whether you're a new town manager or a seasoned pro, this session is a chance to define what good leadership means and discuss how we can shape the future of municipal management, and maybe find out a little bit about ourselves along the way. 

Format: Large group discussion

2:30 PM - 3:45 PM | The Housing Challenge: Barriers, Opportunities, and Action 
No funny comments here. We all know we’re in a housing crisis. We’re honored to have Miro Weinberger, former mayor of Burlington and Executive Chair of Let’s Build Homes, and representatives from Two Rivers-Ottauquechee Regional Commission to lead a conversation on the challenges we face and what we can do to address housing in Vermont and the Upper Valley. 

Format: Conversation and Q&A

4:00-6:00 | Complimentary Cocktail Party
Join us at the Ottauquechee Yacht Club for a few drinks and apps and some post-day one conversation. (Shuttle service available!)