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- [00:01]
John Brucato
You're listening to ASBO International's School Business Insider. I'm your host, John Brucato. Each week on School Business Insider, I sit down with school business officials and industry experts from around the world to share their stories and explore the topics that matter most to you. Find out what it means to be a school business official and get your insider pass on all things school business. Hi, everyone. Welcome back. Today's guest is Ron Clamser. Dr. Ron Clamser. He is the assistant superintendent for business at PNW BOCES in New York in Westchester County. Chris, great friend of mine, returning guest, and this year is the president of ASBO New York. So, Ron, so glad to have you back on the podcast. How's it going?
- [01:01]
Ron Clamser
It's going great.
- [01:02]
John Brucato
Well, I'm excited to speak with you because we've been doing a lot of good work on the board together with asbo, and I wanted to just kind of explore your volunteer and servant leadership with ASBO ny your career, and just the trajectory that kind of took you to where you are now. So with that being said, tell me a little bit about your service with Hasbro New York, how you got started, why you wanted to get started, and how you ended up here as president.
- [01:29]
Ron Clamser
Yeah, so I think I got started really getting involved in the association somewhere like 18 years ago, so early in my career at a interim superintendent that had really encouraged me to get involved with the association and then connected me with two business officials that he had worked with. One is Mike Shepard, who you know, and Mike used to work in the same area where I was, but had gone and went to work for boces. And so he connected me with Mike so that I could kind of get. Get some mentorship with Mike. And then there was another one, Brian Sirianni, that he worked with that was down in the Saratoga region. And so I went and spent a day with him, just kind of learned the rop. So it was my first experience with other school business officials that were in the association. Went to my first conference. And then from that point, I don't remember how it started, but I got involved in the Government Relations Committee.
- [02:32]
John Brucato
You've been on that for a long time.
- [02:33]
Ron Clamser
Been on that for a really long time.
- [02:36]
John Brucato
And just real quick, for those who may not be aware, what does the Government Relations Committee do?
- [02:40]
Ron Clamser
So the Government Relations Committee for our association is involved with setting legislative agendas that, that we could do advocacy work for topics that have interest to the school business official profession. Right. And being from the north country, they needed some North Country Representation. North country would be the upper northeast portion of New York for those who don't know what the north country is. And it's mostly rural. Right. So I was able to bring an aspect of what's it like to be in a rural school district to a statewide committee like that that goes to the Capitol and we talk about different legisl that are affecting school districts. So that was really my first get involved in the association work. And I thought the advocacy was so important because it has such a broad scope and it's not narrow, but it really affects a multiple, diverse group of school districts. So that was really a lot of what drove my passion and what I'm really excited about in some of the strategic work that we've done is there's a big focus on advocacy. And so it's something that I've been passionate about ever since I got involved.
- [03:50]
John Brucato
So why has volunteer service been so important to you throughout your career? I mean, 18 years of doing this, that's a long time and a lot of commitment for you. I mean, there's a lot of travel involved, especially now being on the board. But why has this been such a priority for you?
- [04:08]
Ron Clamser
You know, the volunteer. Volunteerism is really at the core of who I am as a person. I've been involved both personally and professionally in a lot of volunteer work. And I. I think that's where I get my. My buzz from. You know, like, I like to work with people, I like to engage with people, and I like to be of use to people. So I really enjoy that kind of work. And so serving on the. On the board and serving in an advocacy capacity kind of fulfills that need that I have to. To reach out and serve.
- [04:42]
John Brucato
Yeah. So your volunteer service has really elevated in the last couple. President Elect, last year, you're now ascending to the presidency. How has your perception and scope of volunteer service changed now that you're in more of a leadership role rather than being maybe on a committee or two?
- [05:02]
Ron Clamser
Yeah, sorry. So before I say that, before I get into that answer, I would just comment that being on the board was something that was always of interest to me, but I wanted to wait a little. I had young kids when I got involved, and I did want to get into a position where I would be a little bit. You know, my family was a little bit older and the commitment was a little bit. Yeah. So I waited. But I. What preempted me to actually get on the. On the board was that it was done during COVID and I was actually serving as A chapter leader. So we have several chapters of the association and that kind of propelled me into being more of a broad leader because of the work that was being done and we were bringing resources together for our local region. And I think by that people had assumed I had been on the board. And so I was like, you know what, I'm going to run for the.
- [05:59]
John Brucato
Board, might as well just do it.
- [05:59]
Ron Clamser
Might as well do it. And so that's what kind of jumped me into getting on the board. And you and I started on the board the same time.
- [06:05]
John Brucato
Yes. Yeah.
- [06:06]
Ron Clamser
Yeah. So.
- [06:08]
John Brucato
So you. We've been on the board together for how long has it been? Four years? Five years.
- [06:13]
Ron Clamser
Four or five years, right.
- [06:16]
John Brucato
Which has been great. Not only are we close friends, but very close professionally. And I think we're like minded and I think we've done a lot to contribute towards the association. But I'm kind of a couple steps behind you in the process. I mean, you've been president for a couple weeks, but there's a whole lead up to it. What has changed now that you know you've been a part of the cabinet for a year already? So what, what has changed from just a typical director seat to now being part of that C suite?
- [06:45]
Ron Clamser
Yeah. So there's a definite change in time commitment. Right. So when, when you're on the board of directors, there's a commitment, right? Commitment away from the district, the retreats there are. As a board member, you're on one or two of the committees. Once you kind of elevate into a president elect position and become part of what we call the cabinet, which is the past president, president and president elect, your commitment level really almost doubles. Right. And so there's cabinet meetings before board meetings to help us set, set the agenda. You serve on a couple more committees because cabinet members will sit on some of the the committees. So there's a little bit more of a time commitment and then you're a little bit more involved with decision making and guiding, guiding the organization. But then when you step into the president role, that even gets more of a time commitment because now you're on almost every committee. You're doing the cabinet meetings before the board meetings and then there's also regular check ins with the executive director. And then part of my leadership style is to be present and so I'd like to stop in and go to the staff retreat to connect them with the board. When we have leadership academies or at the school business official boot camp, I want to pop in as president and connect that to the group I want to visit chapters. Right. Because that's just part of what I do. So that's not a requirement of being a president, but that's just probably more my personality or, you know, my leadership technique is, is to do that. That doesn't come out as much when I'm on a board because I'm also happy to sit, you know, in the shadows and be part of the group. And so where I may offer up opinions and get involved in the conversation, I'm not forward facing.
- [08:33]
John Brucato
Right.
- [08:33]
Ron Clamser
And then, you know, but for me, when you become the president. Right. That's when you step forward and take a little bit more control.
- [08:41]
John Brucato
Yeah. So we are here together kind of at the tail end of our annual retreat. We focused a lot of our time this year on revamping our strategic plan. I think you and I have been fortunate enough to be a part of a strategic plan from the beginning of it, seeing it through, and now we're in a position to refresh it again, which, which is nice because we can reflect on what has maybe worked for us, what isn't going to work for us moving forward. That being said, what have you taken away from this kind of refresh of our strategic plan? And are you happy with where we landed from the past three years when you originally created it?
- [09:18]
Ron Clamser
Yeah, I'm really happy. I'm excited about it. You used the word reflect and that was the theme of my. When you're president, you pick a theme for the conference and then kind of throughout the year. That theme is a thread to everything that we do. And it fit really in well with the strategic plan. Because the strategic planning process this year was more of a reflection on the work that we did a couple years ago when our organization, when the association was going through kind of a metamorphosis and a rebuild of sorts. The strategic plan was much more engaged because we had a lot more work to do. And over the last couple years, as you know, being on the board, we've retooled policy manuals, we've hired new, we're involved in hiring a new executive director and lots of work that, that the board was a little bit more involved in the management of things. And so now we're taking a step back and saying we don't need to redo the entire strategic plan. We just need to reflect on what we have and narrow that scope and maybe build on it. And so that. That's what's exciting about it. A good portion of the work was there. We just needed to step back A little bit, reflect on it and refine it.
- [10:34]
John Brucato
Well, the whole process the past couple of days has really been enlightening because when we pick up our old strategic plan, or the one that has really concluded to your point, a lot of the verbiage and the direction we had at that point was kind of rebuilding the association, and it was more management than governance. And I think we're at a point to your earlier comment that we can kind of pull back a little bit and become much more of a governing board, not so much a micromanaging board.
- [11:03]
Ron Clamser
Right. You know, and one of the things and we talked about that in our planning session is that we often approach these matters in the scope and lens of the jobs that we do. Right, right.
- [11:14]
John Brucato
I think that's been the most challenging part. I think it was maybe Amanda or Brian on the. They said, you know, we're a 501C3. We're not a school district.
- [11:22]
Ron Clamser
Right. But yet our experience is working with boards.
- [11:26]
John Brucato
Right.
- [11:26]
Ron Clamser
Board of Ed. Right. And so we have to realize that this isn't a board of Ed. This is a Not for profit. And we also come with our experience as a school business official, which, you know, what are the needs of our district? But when you serve on a board, you're thinking of the needs of the membership and its whole, and not one specific district or one type of district. And so I think it's important to remind ourselves of that on a constant basis. And what I'm excited about with the strategic plan is there's an advocacy portion. There's also a real focus on membership services and how do we serve our members and connect our members to the association work. And what does it look like to be an association that serves members? You know, the challenges that face us as business officials are not the challenges of the association.
- [12:11]
John Brucato
Right.
- [12:12]
Ron Clamser
The association has to develop resources to help the business official meet those challenges, but it's not the same challenge. Right. So I think putting that into. Into the lens and having that direct the conversation was really important, too.
- [12:26]
John Brucato
Well, I think our work and our progress forward is really evidenced by the fact that we now have three goals for our strategic plan, where prior we had five. And what was really educational for me during the process was some of the goals we've been able to accomplish, and now we're sustaining because it's just kind of woven into the fiber of who we are as an association. So not that it's been accomplished and we could. We can put a rubber stamp on it, but it's just. It's kind of who we are. So it doesn't need to be aspirational anymore. And now we've narrowed it down to three, which a lot of what we're focusing on I think is still woven into what we do. But we wanted to be very purposeful about how we kind of approach it. Was that kind of your take on it was.
- [13:11]
Ron Clamser
Yeah. And I think the meat of what was in the five goals before is still reflective in the three goals. In some cases, we've. We've blended two goals together into one or we've parked some of the parts of the goal into value statements, action statements, as opposed to being part of the strategic plan. And then some of it we really did take out because we have accomplished that management part and we've been able to back out now and be governance. And so the one goal that was really about restructuring the organization, we just took it out altogether because we've made so much progress there.
- [13:51]
John Brucato
Yeah, I'm excited. You kind of gave a little preview on our goals and I don't want to get into it too much, but the one I'm very much excited about is really being the first resource for school business officials, new veteran or aspiring. I think we have a great opportunity there to really be the go to for anybody really adjacent to school business, including our sister organizations with superintendents, school boards. What are you most excited about? What opportunities do you see coming down the line this year and for the next three years?
- [14:24]
Ron Clamser
Probably the opportunity to refocus our work on membership. You know, it seems like our goals now are being more centered towards the, you know, serving the membership, not restructuring of the association. And because resources are limited. And what I mean that is the staff is only so large, right. There's only so much capacity that the.
- [14:44]
John Brucato
Volume, which was a revolving theme, is making sure that whatever goals we're setting, we're also sensitive to the capacity constraints.
- [14:52]
Ron Clamser
Right. And there's only so much capacity that the volunteerism of the board and other people can get involved in. And if you're redoing policy and you're rebuilding an organization, it kind of takes you away from those member centered, that member centered focus. Not that we weren't serving our members, but we would have ideas and say, wouldn't it be great if we could do X?
- [15:13]
John Brucato
Right?
- [15:14]
Ron Clamser
And they're like, we just don't have the capacity to take that on right now.
- [15:16]
John Brucato
We had to get our house in order first.
- [15:17]
Ron Clamser
Right. We have to rebuild. And so I'm excited that all of that good work from the previous Board and the boards ahead of us and the leadership that we had in the past presidents got us to a point where now we're able to refocus. And I guess that's what I'm excited about is that reaching out to members, helping the membership and providing the resources that guide and support our members. But also when like you mentioned, superintendent groups or school boards, groups or other associations are looking for something that they can come to us and be like, yeah, you're the experts in school finance. Can you provide some guidance in this?
- [16:02]
John Brucato
When you look for indicators of success with what we're doing as a board, do you find it challenging to maybe not let your own biases come into play? I know that certainly has been a challenge for me at times. We're putting a lot of time and effort into this and you're looking for any marker of success. But are you able to remain objective? Is it challenging to see? Are we really meeting the mark or am I just have my rose colored glasses on? And because we've been doing this for.
- [16:27]
Ron Clamser
Five years, yeah, I think that is a challenge. Right. Removing your own biases. But for me, while it's always present, I don't find that to be a personal challenge just because. And you've known me for now a few years and we've become really close. I live in the gray zone and a lot of things and one of my strengths is I'm able to look at both sides of an argument and try to find common ground. And so I'm able to step back from my own personal biases. But I recognize that as a challenge. And I'm not saying that it's always 100% on point, but it's less of a challenge for me. And I try to be that voice in the room that tries to bring the balance.
- [17:12]
John Brucato
Right. Do you think we've been able to. We're in the right direction? Have we accomplished?
- [17:16]
Ron Clamser
Absolutely, I think, yeah. And we have a really talented board. You know, one of the nice things about it is there is a cycle of people that cycle on and cycle off the board. So you get a fresh look and you get somebody that comes on with a different set of skills and experience. And so we've always been able to, to gel together as a board and get the best out of all the people that are working.
- [17:40]
John Brucato
Right. It's funny too, because to your point of cycling off and coming on as a new member, we have a new member this year. And I just think back to when you and I started, it really is like drinking from a fire hose. And I was hesitant to find my place at first because I didn't know what was appropriate for me to kind of contribute to because I'm just the new guy. And now it's like, well, having been on the board for five years, we want to hear everything and anything that somebody has to offer. Did you feel the same when you started on the board? Were you hesitant to kind of contribute at first, or did you jump right in and, you know, you felt comfortable to contribute to what was a team that had been together for a long time?
- [18:18]
Ron Clamser
Yeah, I think there was a hesitation. Right. But we also got on the board at a very challenging time. Where in July, like you said, it was like drinking out of a fire hose. Right. We just got baptized with fire right away and had to jump in. We didn't have the luxury of maybe taking a year and saying, oh, I want to learn everything I can before jumping in. Fortunately, when. When. When that happened, we got on the board, there was, you know, good chemistry with other people that were on the board that.
- [18:45]
John Brucato
Right.
- [18:46]
Ron Clamser
That we were able to work with. I think one of the challenges of that is the board term is only two years.
- [18:51]
John Brucato
Yes.
- [18:52]
Ron Clamser
And so if it takes you a year to kind of take it all in, then if you're on for the two year term, you only have a year, really to implement. And so maybe that's a discussion we have. And I think that would be a tough change to make, but to have a longer term of service because gives.
- [19:10]
John Brucato
People an opportunity to get their feet wet. So I want to talk a little bit about your theme this year. You mentioned it already. It is Reflect. Why was that your theme? Why did you choose reflect as your theme for the 25, 26 school year?
- [19:25]
Ron Clamser
So when I was tasked with coming up with a theme, and I don't find myself to be, like, overly creative, you know, so I really kind of struggled with that. And I. So I went. I went to the point of, well, what was the. What was last year's conference theme? And, you know, junior had a theme of elevating the profession. And the whole kind of visual logo thing was about, like, climbing a mountain. And so I started thinking about that. I was like, well, like, if we're elevating the profession and, you know, climbing a mountain, what happens when you get to the top of the mountain? You know, that the work's not over. You just don't, like, live there and die there. What's next? Right. So, you know, that's where I kind of came up with the reflect theme. I said, you know, when you make the journey, you want to take a moment to reflect on that journey. And the reflect part was reflecting on how you got there, who helped you to get there, all the challenges you overcame to get to that point. Then you're reflecting on enjoying the moment, and then you're reflecting and thinking, okay, now what are we going to do moving forward? And that's where the theme came up from. And being that we are in a transition period, it kind of fit, you know, like, so I don't know what next year's theme is going to be or the future, but for this year just seemed really appropriate. And there was a little bit of mirroring in my own life that as I've gotten older and, you know, hit a milestone birthday this year is like, I spent a lot of time just reflecting on my own personal journey. And so that kind of mirrored, you know, blended into. Into this professional aspect as well.
- [21:04]
John Brucato
Can you recall or share a moment in your own professional journey what that caused you to reflect? Is there anything that really stands out when you think about laying this foundation and this theme for. For the upcoming year? And then you think Back to your 18 years of service, Is there a moment that really stands out that you have reflected on?
- [21:25]
Ron Clamser
I don't have, like, one specific moment, but there's a lot of little moments that. That, you know, trigger reflection.
- [21:32]
John Brucato
Sure.
- [21:33]
Ron Clamser
Whether it was a. A change in. In the job. You know, there was a point when I relocated from one part of the state to another part of the state. There were different challenges that came up in. In the career where I had a, you know, like, take a step back and maybe reflect. Maybe it was a change in a superintendent or a change of the board or Covid or, you know, something else. And so I don't know that there's one single event. I've been asked that question a lot, and I can't really put my finger on it, but there's been multiple events. And if you think about it, some people have, like, a critical event in their life that maybe changed their trajectory, and other people just have, like, little moments that have been meaningful. And for me, it's more about little moments, you know, that have built up and.
- [22:21]
John Brucato
Yeah, I totally agree.
- [22:22]
Ron Clamser
One specific.
- [22:23]
John Brucato
Yeah, I'm the same way. I can't think of one moment that really changed my trajectory. It was just a series of little moments or experiences that all culminate to where we are now. Right. It's not just this huge, catastrophic thing that now I'm on The board now I'm a business official, that kind of thing.
- [22:41]
Ron Clamser
Well, our keynote speaker talked about that aha moment. Like that moment of your life that was really impactful and changing and like. Like, I don't have a single moment. I have lots of little aha moments that I could probably draw experience off of.
- [22:58]
John Brucato
So meeting you was a monumental moment in my life. Our friendship has really changed my trajectory.
- [23:07]
Ron Clamser
Never been on a podcast before you.
- [23:12]
John Brucato
So, again, looking back at what the work that we've been able to accomplish over the last few days, what do you think that once we get this published and out to the membership, what do you think we're going to have to do to message that we talked a lot about communication? I think when we do all this work, sometimes we assume that people are just going to understand what we're doing. And why do you think we're gonna have to kind of be a little more strategic about our comms to the membership?
- [23:46]
Ron Clamser
I think we do. And I think sometimes we can lose sight of it. So we come together, we have this retreat, we do all this brainstorming, we come up with an idea. Now we have to implement it. And we can't lose sight of, like, the work's not done now, right? The work is just beginning, and you can fall into a trap where like, wow, that was a tough couple days. You know, we really hit the grind and got it accomplished, and then now it just doesn't get put on a shelf. It has to go. And then I also think sometimes we know the work that went into it and we know the thought process, but the membership doesn't. And so the challenge is they just.
- [24:27]
John Brucato
See a one pager of, here's three strategic goals, right?
- [24:30]
Ron Clamser
And I don't know that they need to know how the sausage is made, but they do need to know that there's sausage available.
- [24:36]
John Brucato
Right? Yeah. I'm not cutting that anyways, so.
- [24:53]
Ron Clamser
I don't know why it's so funny.
- [24:55]
John Brucato
This is ridiculous analogy, you know, Guys, there's sausage available. All right, so you were saying, right? The membership doesn't need to know every little decision point or pain point that the board went through to come to these three goals, but they should have an understanding of kind of the process and the why, right?
- [25:19]
Ron Clamser
And you can't, like, sorry, you can't just go to the membership and say, look what we did for you. You know what I'm saying? That doesn't work. But you still got to get. You still got to get that word out there somehow. And you have to just balance how it's done. You know what I'm saying? No, because there's that it's like the disconnect between what the membership is expect. Like the membership just kind of expects that the association is there. They don't necessarily need to know that. They need to know that we're there. They don't need to know how necessarily we got there. I guess I.
- [26:02]
John Brucato
No, I hear what you're saying. I think there's value in having the membership understand why we're doing what we're doing. And not just we're an association for the sake of being so we really are here to serve the members. But that doesn't just come out of nowhere. There's a lot of work that goes into it. And here's why we're focusing on these three areas. And this is really where we've landed after five, six years of putting this together.
- [26:28]
Ron Clamser
Yeah. I mean, the balance is feeding without force feeding. We're serving the membership, but we're not necessarily pounding this new strategic plan down their throat.
- [26:40]
John Brucato
Right. You mentioned something during our process where one of your goals, I believe, this year is to visit other chapters. I think at least my experience has been we're comfortable in our region, we know everybody. But you're exploring the idea of maybe going across the state and just being a representative of the board, not just a fellow school business official, but being a presence being seen and taking an opportunity to articulate what we've been able to do. Tell me more about your thought behind that.
- [27:11]
Ron Clamser
Yeah. The chapter thing has been a passion of mine too, and I understand there's a bout. Right. So the way the association is is designed as we have a state association and there's chapters that are subsets of the association. Each chapter somewhat runs independent, but they really are connected to the association. Right. And I feel like that's the.
- [27:34]
John Brucato
Or at least should be, that is.
- [27:36]
Ron Clamser
The grassroots of where we are. Right. So the work is really happening at the local level. And I feel that in the local level, you're getting together with your regional groups or even your boces group. Right. So. So you're getting together more regionally than you are statewide. And so if the association wants to connect with membership, where does that happen? It happens at the local level. And so I think it's important that there's a presence and there's a connection. Because when members are looking at what does my association do for me? What is the value of the membership that my district pays into it? How do we connect members? Is by going at the local level and whether that's. And I know this last year, the ASBO executive director and some of the directorship staff level have made an effort to get to the local chapters. Right. And I encouraged board members to do the same. Don't just go to your chapter meeting, but try to go to a neighboring chapter or something else and connect the work that the state association is doing back to the locals. Right.
- [28:37]
John Brucato
Yeah.
- [28:38]
Ron Clamser
And so I feel like that's really important. And if I could do it, I mean, it's very difficult to travel all over the state. I. I have a job too. Right. But I think it really is important.
- [28:49]
John Brucato
You actually bring up a good point. Have you found it challenging to balance your day job and your volunteer service? Especially now that, as you were saying earlier, your commitment has increased two, threefold now being as part of the cabinet.
- [29:02]
Ron Clamser
It is a challenge. Right. Because there's a lot of commitment away from the office or time in the office just focused on other things. And it has been a challenge over the course of the years, and it's been different when I've been in different districts. But at the boces, I feel like it's less of a challenge because the work of a BOCES business official in New York is much more of a regional kind of aspect anyway. Especially the work because of the way I had explained my servant leadership before me being a BOCES business official, I have spent time getting into the component districts as well. Right. So it's.
- [29:41]
John Brucato
The job's a little different than, like.
- [29:43]
Ron Clamser
It mirrors the work of being on the board of directors, too, which makes it a little bit easier to have the commitment than when you're in district. And the sheer amount of work that's on a school district business official can be a lot, you know, and so difficult to.
- [30:00]
John Brucato
Because you're serving your fellow business officials where a district, you're dealing with the community and parents and budgets and things like that.
- [30:08]
Ron Clamser
Correct. You know, some would say, well, you know, I'm still serving the BOCES finances as well. Sure. In addition to branching out to business officials. But it's not as intense because in a district, you know, you've got the taxpayer, you've got the family.
- [30:24]
John Brucato
Right.
- [30:24]
Ron Clamser
You know, we don't have that at boces, at least it doesn't come to my level. My taxpayer and my family are school business officials. Right.
- [30:33]
John Brucato
Superintendents a little bit more manageable sometimes and sometimes not. Yeah, great point. So someone listening may be interested in taking something away from your trajectory. What would you say to someone who is considering maybe some kind of volunteer leadership? Where do they get started? What kind of commitment do you think they're up against? And what would you say is a good time in one's career to get involved?
- [30:58]
Ron Clamser
So it gets started, I feel, by getting involved two ways. One, either on a statewide committee or two, and getting involved in local chapter leadership. And we've kind of created a path forward for that, too. We've created process on the ASBO board. We would like to see people come through some sort of advancement by either being on the committee level or being in a pathway.
- [31:26]
John Brucato
There's kind of a pathway to leadership.
- [31:28]
Ron Clamser
There's a pathway to serving on the board. So I think that's important. And one of the things that I've shared forward with, with the executive director is I'd like to develop like a one pager or something that says, hey, if you're interested in running for the board, here's some things to consider. Time commitment, pathway two, or those kinds of things. I think the more information we can get to the memberships so that you don't run for the board, get elected on the board, and then all of a sudden find out the commitment, that's a little bit too late.
- [32:03]
John Brucato
And I think, too, I've really been encouraged the past three or so years, we're seeing more involvement from new people. I mean, I think we talk about this a lot because we're some of these people where it's like you often see the same people doing stuff all the time and just cycling from different committee to different board. But I would love to hear your thoughts. I feel like more recently, we're seeing new faces kind of come to the table, generating new interest, even evidenced by we're having contested elections for the board, where just a few years ago, I think you and I were some of these people just being tapped on the shoulder like, hey, no one's running. Would you be interested in.
- [32:40]
Ron Clamser
We have a vacancy. Can you run?
- [32:42]
John Brucato
Right. What has been your observation on that?
- [32:44]
Ron Clamser
No, I feel like it has been more. There has been more interest, and I think it's important to consider running for the board. What can I bring? What kind of skill sets can I bring to the association as a whole, either because of just my style of leadership or the region that I serve, the districts that I serve in? And it's not a popularity contest. But there's a function to running for the board.
- [33:17]
John Brucato
There's a networking component. There is face recognition, name recognition.
- [33:20]
Ron Clamser
Because what's important too is that when you get on the board, you're not representing your district. You're representing the districts as a whole. And that's sometimes tough, you know.
- [33:30]
John Brucato
Yeah, yeah. Changing your mindset for what best serves my district to what best serves all or most districts.
- [33:37]
Ron Clamser
And we have such a diverse state, so we have rural districts, we have urban districts, we have city districts, we have small districts and large districts. And the association serves them all right.
- [33:47]
John Brucato
Which, you know, we can go down this rabbit hole another time, but. But really is evidenced kind of back to the Government Relations Committee and our legislative priorities. Because it's a balancing act. Because not always is there going to be a time where legislative priorities serve every district the same. There could be some, for lack of a better term, winners or losers. So that's been kind of a challenge.
- [34:08]
Ron Clamser
And there are competing interests. And so you don't run for a board to have influence over your side.
- [34:15]
John Brucato
Of the issue, or at least you shouldn't.
- [34:16]
Ron Clamser
You shouldn't. Right, right. Yeah. So there was another element of. Of the service that I think, and it's not necessarily something that interests me, but I feel like it's important. Is then the involvement with ASBO International. Of course, because. And when I say it doesn't interest me, like I don't have an interest in serving, I was going to say.
- [34:36]
John Brucato
You are on an ASBO International podcast, so I hope there's not.
- [34:38]
Ron Clamser
No, no. The interest isn't of. Of getting like serving on the PADDLE International board, but I think having the association be present with the International. So especially coming from a state like New York where there is a lot of influence and we are one of the largest components of, you know, of nationwide education. Right, right. And so there are. Even in. In today's political climate, there are federal things that are affecting school districts. Right. And so I think the fact that New York is starting to have more of a presence in the. In the asborn international scene is a good thing. And I support that. I don't. I'm not suggesting that I'm going to run for the ASBO board.
- [35:19]
John Brucato
No, no, no.
- [35:20]
Ron Clamser
At some point. But, you know, I have started going to the conferences and. And I am presenting at. At some, you know, great. Some of the workshops. So I think it's important. I feel like New York needs to have a presence. And, you know, that's kind of what I'm referring to.
- [35:32]
John Brucato
Right. Well, and I also just quickly want to say kudos to Brian, our executive director, and Amanda, our deputy executive director, because without their leadership, I don't know that we would be involved so much as an affiliate with ASBO International.
- [35:44]
Ron Clamser
Right. And it's an important aspect because just like school districts are part of the greater whole in our statewide association, the state associations are part of the greater whole of the international association. And I know I'm making signs with my hands, but you can't see on the podcast. But that's how I roll. Right.
- [36:04]
John Brucato
Well, Ronnie, we have a long drive ahead of us, my friend, so. So thank you for sitting down with me again on the podcast, and congratulations on your presidency and best of luck this year.
- [36:14]
Ron Clamser
And for those listeners that don't know John is the president elect, you might have mentioned that on the onset. I don't know if you did. And so one of the things I am excited about is being able to work with you on the cabinet level into the next year. Not only are we friends, but we're close in proximity to each other, and I feel like we can, we can build a continuity over the two year period and not like, you know, so I'm really excited about that transition, too.
- [36:41]
John Brucato
Yeah, me too. All right, Ronnie, thank you. Thank you for tuning in to School Business Insider. Make sure to check back each week for your favorite topics on school.