City Trees

4 CityTREES President's Message Darren Green Executive Director's Message Jerri J. LaHaie Although we can't all gather in Louisville this month, we put together an incred- ible virtual conference for you on the theme of envi- ronmental equity. You will find the conference program in this issue of City Trees and of course on the SMA website where you can register to attend. We have kept the registration fee very reasonable, while still needing to take into account the dent in our budget that not having a live conference will make this year. Thank you for gathering with us virtually and for your continued support of SMA. I hope you have been able to attend some of our town halls. At last count, we had 12 scheduled and have now held 8 of those. Discussions have ranged from Covid-19—its impact, how it will affect the future of urban forestry, and what we have learned from it—to topics like writing quality pruning specifi- cations, the value of partnerships, and tree diversity. In the town halls, most of us have been able to see each other, while others are listening in either because of technology challenges or bad hair days. It is really uplifting to be able to get together, even if it is just virtually. As we hunker down for the never-ending virus, the upcoming flu season, and whatever else 2020 is going to throw at us, let's continue to find ways to persevere, to connect, and to thrive. SMA's central premise is members help- ing members. Don't forget that you have a small army of like-minded individuals who are here for you, whether you need a question answered, a sympathetic ear, or just a friendly, understand- ing reminder that we are all in this together. Surely 2021 has better things in store, and we will be able to celebrate how 2020 did not defeat us. Should make for some good stories for next year's in-person conference in Louisville! I began my SMA presidency with very high hopes that we would have a banner year and that much would be accomplished. We had just completed and approved our new Strategy Map which includ- ed a revised vision, values, and mission statement. The mission was broken into four key areas (Members and Stakeholders, Organizational Leadership, Internal Processes, and Organizational Resources). The mission and these four spheres very succinctly yet broadly define why we exist as an organization. The second part of the Strategic Plan was a list of prioritized Strategic Objectives that would help us to accomplish our broader mission. All of these objectives were developed with the assump- tion that we would have another normal year in terms of our programs and projects. In February 2020, we realized very shortly after another wild- ly successful Municipal Forestry Institute that this year would be different. The SMA Board imme- diately took steps as best we could and based on what we considered to be a worst-case sce- nario, we reimagined how to move forward. Our primary task was to try to match our new real- ity with our goals for the year. We discovered that the mission we had developed the previous year was invaluable in our new approach to delivering programs. One of our highest ranking goals was to increase interaction with and among SMA mem- bers. Given that traveling to meet with folks in person is now impractical, we developed a virtual town hall meeting concept that would allow folks to meet and discuss topics of importance virtually. We also decided to proceed with a virtual confer- ence to replace the canceled in-person event (you can see the conference program in this issue). Our "how to get there" had to change dramati- cally this year, but our "why" never altered. I'm looking forward to seeing you at the virtual confer- ence on November 19 th and until then, stay well.

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