We speak with literally hundreds of special districts every week. And we’ve found that the best-run districts all have a special district "rockstar." This isn’t the person who actually puts out the fires, keeps the water clean, or kills the mosquito larvae.
This is the person who makes the special district mission possible. They manage volunteers, update the public about important happenings, respond to contact inquiries, send newsletters, keep the district compliant, and pretty much everything in between.
One of the many rockstars we recently talked to is Lillee Rodriguez, the Office Administrator at Philomath Fire and Rescue District. She is, without a doubt, the district's rockstar. As she puts it, she, "takes care of everything that isn't on fire."
Lillee has been a champion for improving internal processes and increasing community engagement since joining the district in 2015. Because she wears so many hats, Lillee's days can be crazy and anything can happen at any time. The simplest way for her to save time on day-to-day processes, while working towards the district's goals, was to automate any and all tasks that could be automated. So, Lillee implemented tools and processes that are intuitive, efficient, and specific to special districts - because special districts are in fact special, just like the rockstars that make them work so well.
For instance, it was frustrating when it took 2 hours to get an agenda posted to the website, now it only takes her 20 minutes.
Implementing technology designed to automate many of her day-to-day tasks has saved her about 20 hours per month.
She no longer spends tens of hours uploading agendas and minutes, granting online training access for new board members, taking payments, and ensuring compliance with the website.
Now, Lillee spends about 4 hours per month on regular updates and has the time to focus on other, more important, tasks like policy writing and supporting the board.
So, if there is one thing that the district rockstars have in common, it's consistent improvement to find ways to do things better.
We appreciate all of you "special district rockstars" out there! Your district quite literally could not function without you. Thank you! 😊
