2020 Clerks and Treasurers Institute enters virtual world
The COVID-19 pandemic has cancelled many events, but it wasn’t going to stop the delivery of UW-Green Bay’s 2020 Municipal Clerks and Treasurers Institute held in July.
When science-based evidence pointed to a long term disruption, the Continuing Education and Community Engagement Government team went into action, working feverishly converting 75 courses into a virtual format. One hundred percent of the instructors said “YES” to the call to convert their curriculum to the virtual Zoom platform.
When the announcement was made to go virtual, there was only 20 cancellations of the 250 registrants. However, new registrations came in faster than the cancellations. The changed format delivered a very unexpected surprise of 332 registrations and is still growing with the possibility of breaking last year’s attendance record of 350 registrants.
The Municipal Clerks and Treasurers Institute is the only place in the State of Wisconsin that specializes in training municipal clerks and treasurers for their jobs. Partnering organizations, WMCA and MTAW, have awarded more than $19,000 in scholarships to their members from communities that lack the resources to support attendance to the Institute. Local communities depend on the Institute.
UW-Green Bay’s Clerks and Treasurers Institute has a direct impact in local government throughout the State of Wisconsin. This year the International Institute of Municipal Clerks awarded Kassie VanRemortel the Institute Directors Award of Excellence. This is the second time she has received this prestigious recognition. Only twice in the history of the International Institute of Municipal Clerks has an Institute Director received this honor.
