Newsletter and State of the City Address

As I have previously mentioned, one of my long term, and in a sense most important duties has been to develop the newsletter for Phoenix Sister Cities. I have been working hard to polish up the quarterly newsletter and hope to have it completed in the next couple of weeks. I have included in it numerous events that have taken place throughout the course of FY 2011-2012 and I am very excited to get it printed and sent out to the over 400 members of Phoenix Sister Cities. Some of these events include the Hermosillo Band and Bugle Corps performing in the St. Patrick's Day Parade a couple of days ago, the Matsuri Festival, several different fundraisers for city committees, and the Youth Ambassador Exchange Program, to name a few. Currently, the newsletter stands at around 15 pages and each page contains brief articles and pictures that I had to track down from various committee members and volunteers in order to incorporate them into the newsletter. Needless to say, a few of the items in the newsletter have been easier to develop than others. This is due to the fact that some of the individuals that I have tried to contact regarding content information have been slow to respond or have not replied to my requests. Regardless of some of these difficulties, the newsletter is coming along just fine and I hope it will turn out great!

While I was working on the newsletter the other day I received an email from a representative in the mayor's office. The email was an invite to attend the State of the City Address on April 11th. It technically wasn't an invite due to the fact that this yearly address is an event where the public is encourage to attend, but nonetheless, it was invitation to reserve a seat at the address. Additionally, I was informed that I will have the opportunity to ask the mayor a few questions after his speech. Apparently, my supervisor was nice enough to set up a "shadowing opportunity" for me after I told him that I am interested in pursuing a career in local government. I am really excited about this opportunity and I definitely can't wait to share the experience with you all.