Welcome to the Blog

This is the third blog I have done for the ICMA International Committee's Spring Meeting. The prior two were for meetings in Bratislava, Slovakia in 2009 and Bangalore, India in 2008. This year we are traveling to Rotorua, New Zealand. My wife Patrice and I leave Monday afternoon Chicago time for Los Angeles and then to Auckland, New Zealand.

As in most previous trips, the City does not pay for trip. I attend the ICMA meetings on City time, but I am responsible for the airfare, hotel and meals on these trips.

Note that I have set the time zone for the blog to Rotorua, so some initial blog entries will be a little time zone challenged. Evanston is 17 hours earlier than Rotorua.