CAMA’s “Making Life Happen” program was created in partnership, with a mandate of raising awareness of local government with a specific focus encouraging younger Canadians to consider a municipal career.

The next time you or your staff are asked to speak to local community groups or businesses, explain local government and the role of the Chief Administrative Officer, or talk to students about municipal government careers, “Making Life Happen” will give you the building blocks for a memorable presentation. Tailor a message from your own municipality using the elements and main messages we have created, including a powerpoint presentation with speaking notes and handouts. We are also pleased to have a bilingual website for this campaign: www.makinglifehappen.ca. Also, on the CAMA website you will find all of the promotional materials that are print ready and are provided to you in separate English and French documents along with instructions.

This initiative was a Canada wide Association effort with six of our Provincial Association partners:

• Ontario Municipal Administrators Association
• Local Government Administrators of Alberta
• Association of Municipal Administrators of New Brunswick
• Alberta Rural Municipal Administrators Association
• Local Government Managers Association of British Columbia
• Association of Municipal Managers, Clerks and Treasurers of Ontario

The key messages of “Making Life Happen” were built on qualitative and quantitative research. You can view the executive summary of the Insights West research. The full report here. This report has some interesting insights which you may wish to pass along to your Human Resources Departments when recruiting your own employees.

We hope that you and your staff will use these resources to help us promote such a gratifying career to our next generation leaders

Council changeover happens any time there is an election or by-election.

Municipal elections in Canada fall within the jurisdiction of the various Provinces and Territories. With municipal elections mostly occurring every four years, the probability of change is high. Even if all the same individuals are voted in, each term brings a new Council. With each election, the culture of Council may differ, the politics may vary, and return Councillors may become more confident in their role.

While the agenda may vary across jurisdictions and municipalities, the overarching purpose and importance of an orientation session is to ensure elected officials understand their role in governance and municipal service delivery. By providing each new Council with the information they require to get off to a good start and govern successfully, a CAO can build trust from the get-go, establish a strong Council-CAO working relationship and ensure Council has confidence in the CAO’s abilities.

To access CAMA’s Council Orientation Toolkit click here.

Following are just a few of the topics that are included in the toolkit:

• Swearing-In Ceremony
• Checklists for Staff for Incoming and Outgoing Elected Officials
• Ideas for Teambuilding
• Suggestions on How to Explain the Different Roles of Staff and Council (including the mechanics of governance of a municipality and committee systems)
• The Decision Making Process
• How to Chair A Meeting
• Administrative Reports
• The Life of a Capital Project
• Media Relations
• Tips on Setting Priorities of Your Community
• Staff Orientation on Working with Council

When a municipal Chief Administrative Officer (CAO) experiences the turmoil and emotions that immediately follows a transition, it is often difficult to think about the resources needed and/or where to find them quickly. 

The Canadian Association of Municipal Administrators (CAMA) has a “Members in Transition Toolkit” to assist members, as well as their companions and families. 

Everyone experiences transition in their own way and throughout the project we learned that often just hearing the experiences of others can be helpful.  It became evident, however, that having the right tools and resources available when needed made the transition easier. 

The goal of the Toolkit is to provide:  peer support and guidance; inspirational quotes and practical tips from those who have experienced transition; and, easy links to professional resources across the country.  The Toolkit is divided into three parts: 

1. Pre-Transition (Something’s up? I feel it coming!) 
2. During Transition (It’s happened. Now what?) 
3. Post Transition (Let the healing begin!) 

The Toolkit also features a checklist for companions, ongoing peer support, ask a peer / contact a mentor, and a feedback section.  

While nothing anyone says can really prepare someone for a career transition, hopefully the Toolkit can guide members in transition along the journey. 

If you would like to become a CAMA member and have access to this great resource please click here. 

The Canadian Association of Municipal Administrators (CAMA) offers a three-step CAO Performance Evaluation Toolkit that will benefit municipalities across the country.

This toolkit will enhance the CAO/Council relationship and help local elected officials achieve their strategic goals and objectives. It is available for free to member and non-member municipalities.

An effective working partnership between Council and its CAO can be one of the most critical prerequisites for municipal success.

Local elected officials rely on their CAO to be the link between them and municipal operations; to implement the municipality’s policies and programs; and, to help them achieve their strategic goals and objectives.

CAMA’s Toolkit is designed to be a system that is flexible for the CAO, Mayor and Council. It’s a tool that lets you construct an evaluation process based on what works for you and your organization. It offers a variety of ways to choose goals, set competencies, conduct your self-assessment, and have ongoing performance evaluation conversations. For CAOs, the toolkit provides a process that uses strategies and templates that can be shared with the Mayor and Council to ensure goals, key results, core competencies, and performance measures are mutually understood. For Mayor and Council, the Toolkit underscores the value of CAO performance conversations, and offers a process for conducting the performance evaluations fairly.

To access the Performance Evaluation Toolkit, click here. Our toolkit has a lot of gears and options that might, at first glance, make it appear to be dauntingly complicated. It’s not! It’s really a simple tool. CAMA is pleased to provide you with a webinar (approximately 20 minutes in length) that is designed to show you just how easy it is to use and how it can be customized and scaled to your municipality. The Frequently Asked Questions by Chief Administrative Officers document and the Frequently Asked Questions by Elected Officials document will also help navigate you through the toolkit.

Visit the CAMA website for all templates and information on this toolkit.

Recognizing the importance of an employment contract for municipal administrators, the Canadian Association of Municipal Administrators (CAMA) developed a CAO Employment Contract Toolkit which is available to members.

This toolkit is meant to be a resource to support our members whether they are existing CAOs (or senior administrators) with past experience in the role or potential future CAOs with no experience as a CAO when negotiating their contract with elected officials. The toolkit provides guidance and support to our members along with recommendations and best practices that are a win-win for both parties.

The Toolkit offers information on how to assess the political environment and culture of the community, how to negotiate an employment contract, important provisions to include, the different legislation requirements between Provinces and Territories, pension/portability and benefits, the importance of having a performance evaluation, legal advice – just to name a few. It also provides some sample contracts, a sample CAO Bylaw with a job description and sample contract clauses for each topic.

If you would like to become a CAMA member and have access to this great resource please click here.

Recognizing the importance of building a team within any organization, CAMA developed a “Toolkit for Effective Chief Administrative Officers: The Right Questions to Ask”.

This toolkit is meant to be a resource to support our members whether they are just starting their job as a CAO (or senior administrator) or have been in the role for some time in a new community or one they’ve been in for many years. It will assist all of our members with building a team with their staff and Council. No one is born a local government administrator. Each of us comes to this role by way of a path of some kind. Being an effective CAO is not about knowing everything; it is about asking the right questions and challenging appropriately. This resource is a guide to support CAOs in their work. One of the most powerful management tools that you can have at your disposal is very basic…the question.

The Toolkit will provide the following tools:

· Sample Questions for Council. It is important to build and maintain a strong relationship with your Council and asking them questions will help to learn more about them as individuals and as a team.

· Sample Questions for each Division and Department. A template has been provided of sample personal, operational and specific questions that a CAO can ask their various Department Heads, Commissioners, Chiefs, and Managers about their operations whether you are just starting your job or have been in it for some time.

· A Resource for your Executive Team. In addition to being invaluable for CAOs, this resource is also a very useful tool for the Executive Team in understanding the kind of questions their CAO are likely to ask to learn more about the operations. Change is also difficult for the senior management team and it too creates a lot of anxiety. Therefore, a section has been included about how to deal with a change in leadership and the direction of an organization.

CAMA hopes that this toolkit will become a valuable resource to support senior administrators in their careers.

If you would like to become a CAMA member and have access to this great resource, please click here.