Filled\nwith anticipation for the new semester and re-energized after taking advantage\nof the privilege to rest and enjoy a long winter break, I find myself thinking\nabout some of the people I admire and\/or have gotten to know better this past\nyear because of the pandemic. Here are just a few: our Hays city commissioners,\nour county health administrator and a group I refer to as our city rallying\nteam.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Our\ncity commissioners \u2013 Michael Berges, Sandy Jacobs, Ron Mellick, Shaun Musil and\nMason Ruder \u2013 have always had important, and sometimes controversial, decisions\nto make, but who could have prepared for 2020? Just when the\nemotionally-charged debates over the roundabouts began to settle, along came\nthe pandemic, and among the many critical decisions that had to be made was the\nmask ordinance. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Although\nI have attended city commission meetings in the past and interacted with\ncommissioners at meetings and events, the pandemic provided me a different look\nat them as a leadership team. Here is what I learned. First and foremost, they\nare committed, hard-working people who have the courage to serve, listen and\nmake tough decisions. Second, they are open-minded and willing to listen\nthoughtfully to a variety of perspectives. Several commissioners reached out to\nlocal and state leaders prior to the mask ordinance meeting to solicit\ndifferent perspectives and to better understand emerging knowledge about the\npandemic. Third, citizens were given the opportunity to speak at meetings and\nevery voice was heard and respected. Fourth, when each commissioner voted, they\nstated their \u201cwhys.\u201d The \u201cwhys\u201d for each commissioner was different.\nCommissioners demonstrated the strength of their commitment to the people they\nserve by candidly disclosing their thoughts, each in their own style, with\ngreat passion. And finally, they did not vote the same. Watching our\ncommissioners in action made me admire and respect them even more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I have no evidence to back this up, but I believe among the most challenging jobs of 2020 was that of a county health administrator. I heard of several counties in Kansas that had difficulty hiring or keeping county health administrators during this pandemic. Hats off to Jason Kennedy, who continually showed up to meetings \u2013 night and day \u2013 presented data, developed protocols and kept our community informed. I imagine being in the public eye so much was indeed a big shift in his daily routine. Honestly, I did not know Jason until the pandemic (thrilled of course to learn he is a Fort Hays State grad), and I really valued his guidance as I made decisions for the university. I also think some of the hidden heroes of our times are the family members of those, like Jason, who serve the citizens of our community as public health administrators. I can only imagine the impact this pandemic had on the family life of these dedicated professionals. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
My final shout out goes to the group I refer to as our city rallying team: Sara Bloom of the Downton Hays Development Corp. (DHDC), Melissa Dixon of the Hays Convention and Visitors Bureau (CVB) and Sarah Wasinger of The Chamber in Hays, Kansas. They all approach each day with a \u201ccan-do attitude,\u201d high energy and a remarkable capacity to reinvent, re-imagine and find solutions to complex challenges. Their resiliency throughout the pandemic was remarkable. Whenever something fell apart, they simply found new ways to put it back together again.\u00a0\u00a0 <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The\nDHDC, for instance, created the \u201cStronger Than Ever\u201d gift card program that\ngenerated almost $50,000 in sales for 40 downtown businesses during the\nmandatory shutdown. Most of that money was raised in the first 48 hours of the\ncampaign. Similarly, the Chamber sold $92,000 in Chamber Cheques (which support\nlocal shopping) in 2020, a six-year high for the program. The DHDC also secured\nmore than $20,000 in donations in five weeks to turn the Downtown Pavilion into\nan ice-skating rink this winter so the community would have access to a fun and\nsafe outdoor activity during the pandemic. I love how this community steps up.\nThe generosity of the neighbors in our community never ceases to amaze me. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Creative\nefforts earned the DHDC two first-place Marketing Awards. March to Main went\ncompletely virtual but still highlighted the best parts of our community and\nengaged thousands of students. Dining with Downtown (a new event) created\nintimate dining experiences inside boutiques, art galleries, furniture stores\nand more, allowing participants to socially connect while physically distancing.\nIt was so successful, DHDC plans to host two of these events in 2021.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
One\nof the things I found beneficial as I navigated decisions for the university\nwas meeting with my CEO colleagues who freely shared their thoughts, plans and\nlessons learned on their campuses and communities as they, like me, worked to\ncreate safe learning environments. While I engaged with my colleagues, our\nchamber provided similar opportunities for our community\u2019s leaders and business\nprofessionals. Partnering with the FHSU Management Development Center, the\nchamber offered complimentary virtual lunch and learn sessions. In November,\nthe Chamber acquired a Leadership Transformation Grant for 2021 from the Kansas\nLeadership Center, which provided 46 spots for participants to attend a\nworkshop titled, \u201cYour Leadership Edge, Lead for Change or Equip to Lead.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Our\nConvention and Visitors Bureau has the unenviable task of creating new and\ncompelling ways to bring visitors to our town. In a COVID-19 world, where\ntravel, lodging, commerce and even basic human-to-human contact was so limited,\nhow did the CVB respond to this unprecedented challenge? By adapting and\nreimagining their role. It pivoted to using the pandemic as an opportunity to\nfocus on taking care of our community. In a normal year, the Welcome Center\nsells colorful Hays postcards to visitors in its welcome center. This year, the\nstaff of the CVB printed positive messages on these cards and delivered several\nhundred of them to local assisted living facilities for their residents. They\nalso partnered with FHSU\u2019s College of Art and Design faculty to clean and\nrestore 29 bronze markers on the Downtown Hays Historic Walking Tour. Now these\nmarkers are bright and readable. The CVB has plans to create a mobile version\nof the tour for visitors as well. Residents and visitors alike can also look\nforward to a CVB-designed driving tour of the iconic Pete Felten sculptures\naround Hays.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Remarkable leaders. A remarkable community. This is Hays, America.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Tisa Mason is president of Fort Hays State University.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Filled with anticipation for the new semester and re-energized after taking advantage of the privilege to rest and enjoy a long winter break, I find… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":37698,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[12323,55],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-58126","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-campus-life","category-opinion"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/tigermedianet.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/Mason-Tisa-040A6662.jpg?fit=750%2C1050&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58126","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=58126"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58126\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":58127,"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58126\/revisions\/58127"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/37698"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=58126"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=58126"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=58126"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}