During the Government Finance Officers Association (GFOA) Annual Conference in Washington D.C. from June 29 through July 2, we had the opportunity to videotape eight attendees speaking forthrightly about their areas of expertise, and we’ve been posting them weekly. The seven interviews we published prior to Labor Day are all available at the bottom of this page.

 Appropriately enough we’re finishing up this series with Chris Morrill, Executive Director and CEO of GFOA. He was full of news about the new work that the organization is embarking on. “There’s lots of challenges for our members right now,” he says, “and we want to make sure we get our good resource and training research more widely used because we believe that the finance officers can do a better job, (and) their communities will be better off. Our goal is thriving communities.” 

Among other things, “a big initiative this year will be a new expanded membership where, when an organization or jurisdiction joins, they can make anyone within that jurisdiction a member of GFOA.”

With this fast-expanding universe of members, Morrill is particularly excited about serving all GFOA’s members well. That effort includes building up more on-demand training so that when someone needs training, they can get the skills they need when they need them. Additionally, over the next two years, a new budget awards program will be implemented that looks past the document at whether citizens are engaged, how information is communicated to elected officials and whether there’s long-term thinking.