point of view

"I see the Baldrige process as a powerful set of mechanisms for disciplined people engaged in disciplined thought and taking disciplined action to create great organizations that produce exceptional results." –Jim Collins, author of Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap and Others Don’t.

Wednesday, noon - Westside Committee

Thursday, 11:30am - SAFE

Friday, 7:30am - Council Work Session

Saturday - Chocolate Tour

Agenda items under development for the upcoming council meeting includes purchase of ambulances, dump bed truck for P/R, marketing agreement for ghost tours, public hearings for Chapter 353 @ 519 & 604 SKC Ave., presentation for Community for All Ages Program update, accept public element for Marocco Estates, & MU Extension Council board appointment. A closed session is planned to discuss contracts.

The Point-in-Time Count, conducted this week, is an annual survey of homeless people in the US conducted by local agencies on behalf of HUD. HUD defines the PIT as a "count of sheltered & unsheltered homeless persons carried out on one night in the last 10 calendar days of January. Generally, the PIT consists of two parts: an unsheltered count & a sheltered count. The sheltered count requires information from emergency shelters, transitional housing, & safe havens. The unsheltered count is more difficult as it generally involves volunteers traveling to places where they expect people experiencing homelessness to be (under bridges, encampments, etc). The official count indicates Excelsior Springs has two homeless individuals residing in the community.

Celebrating work anniversaries this week - Chad Birdsong, Public Works Director - 30 years; Jessica Martin, Firefighter/Paramedic - 6 years; Yolanda Luke, Group Fitness Instructor & Angela West, Water Treatment Plant Operator - 2 years; Maryanna Bolinger, Fitness Attendant - 1 year.

ES joined the Communities of Excellence initiative in 2017 for the sole reason of strengthening local community leadership capable of working together to define solutions to locally defined issues or concerns by using the Baldrige Framework. Today, more than 50 locals participate in shaping solutions for ES using the Framework under the brand Thrive, Excelsior. For more than 30 years, the Baldrige Excellence Framework has empowered organizations to accomplish their missions, improve results, and become more competitive. This leadership and performance management framework includes guidelines for evaluating your processes and results. Two local leaders were among those honored with the 2024 Baldrige Foundation Leadership Awards, Molly McGovern & Kim Halfhill. "It is truly an honor to accept an award that recognizes the work of many who regularly come together to improve our community. Change comes about slowly, so my hope is that our continued recognition for this work, urges us to continue forward. Thank you for wanting to improve our health/wellness, housing & economy. Great progress is being made, I can see it in a variety of ways our community works together."

Genuinely thankful for our general community. I have been helped more times than I'd like to admit this past year, by people who don't know me. I am thankful that when I moved that this is the sweet little town we landed in. My kids love it here. read it on Facebook