Speaker 0
0:00 – 3:21
Can only play the right hand just after I can play the left, but it would be so slow. If the if the bench supports closed on, that's where we're batting a thousand. Okay. Cool. Let's see. The key of Eli are one. So you go first. Hi, this is Ben Brown from Municipal Equation and the North Carolina League of Municipalities. Hope you've had as much fun as I've had during the holidays hanging out with family, in my case who you just heard messing around with the Nutcracker music right there, and that you have a Happy New Year. If you're active on social media in any way then no doubt you've seen the memes and the consensus from what seems like all walks of life that 2016 was a pretty lousy year. Many of our favorite celebrities passed away like Alan Rickman, Jean Wilder, David Bowie, of course Prince, George Michael most recently except for a really bad one that just came across my Twitter feed that I don't know if it's been verified yet and I'm too heartbroken to say her name and no matter where you stand in the political world, you might agree that it was a pretty contentious year. There are many difficult world events as well and fill in the blank really. Even by 2016, there were publications calling it simply a bad year that needed to end. Yeah, it was rough for me too, but I'd rather highlight how for me 2016 was a really positive year as well. We launched this podcast to what was a surprisingly quick return of positive feedback and great ideas that helped to propel municipal equation further. Thanks of course also to the North Carolina League of Municipalities for having the vision to launch this podcast. They make the whole thing possible to begin with. We're extremely happy with how 2016 has treated us on the show here and we can't wait to roll out the new episodes across 2017. We're continuing our holiday break right now to rest and regroup and hang out with family, and we'll be back shortly with a lot of exciting stuff. I will say that in the interim, I'd like to recommend episode 95 of the Gov Love podcast. That's g o v l o v e, which I'll post to our page at soundcloud.com/municipalequation. It's an interview with me along with Dana Birchman, who's the chief digital officer for Gilbert, Arizona, and Matt Horn, the city manager of Geneva, New York. What we all have in common is each of us does a podcast focused one way or another on local government. We each take a different approach. Of course, on Municipal Equation, we focus on cities and towns and what makes them unique, the challenges, new concepts, the cool ideas that make municipalities exciting and quality places to be. On the Gov Love interview I talk about how Municipal Equation got off the ground, the equipment that we use, and and how I think there's a place for podcasting in every local government and I have a very specific reason why. So go listen to that. You'll also hear some great takeaways from Dana and Matt as well as from Kent Wyatt, the Gov Love host on the episode. So I will leave you there, but of course email me at bbrownnclm dot org if you have any ideas for 2017. Follow on Twitter as well at muniequation and we will talk to you soon. Happy New Year.