County Commission | The Magazine August 2017 | Page 7

At the Association's convention county family will talk about their in August we will focus attention on experiences as leadership from a that kind of leadership. For today, variety of angles. Somewhere in that at the local level, this Association discussion, each and every county is committed to growing leaders. It official and employee in attendance is too easy to run for office, pledge should be able to find information to do something that you can never that will allow them to unlock the do, and then settle into the daily The solution lies not in solving routine of blaming and screaming. the individual crisis at hand, but Alabama and its counties have in equipping people with suffered for way too long because a passion for leading inside of that approach to problem solving. their community. Many of the convention’s sessions will focus on real door in their community. opportunities that exist for elected For far too long in Alabama, officials and staff members to take especially in the last few years, up the challenge of being real leaders have been more interested leaders. During one segment of the in pointing out the failings of other program, seven members of the leaders, blaming the problems on someone else and have shouted out obvious – and unproductive – ideas that serve only to generate new, and even more complicated, problems. The solution lies not in solving the individual crisis at hand, but in equipping people with a passion for leading inside their community. At the local level, that’s really the only hope for our state to make any significant improvement. Clearly, today our local communities are at a crossroad. Alabama’s plane home is about to pull out of the gate. And, unfortunately, we are standing around on a sidewalk watching people yell at each other. Our only hope is that there is at least one person in every county who will resolve to lead the community away from the screaming crowd and toward a real solution. I hope you’ll join us in August as we focus on those opportunities. n Introducing a truly unique machine with endless possibilities. The new JCB Teleskid is the first and only skid steer and compact track loader with a telescopic boom, making it the most versatile machine you’ve ever seen. It can lift higher, reach further and dig deeper than any other skid steer on the market and can access areas you wouldn’t have thought possible, until now. Contact JCB of Alabama today and be one of the first to demo this game changing piece of equipment. JCBofAlabama.com TELESKID.JCB.COM 8920 Weaver Ave Leeds, AL 35094 (888) 791-3173 791 Anderson Rd Montgomery, AL 36110 (866) 954-6522 4501 COUNTY COMMISSION | 7