Exciting changes at the MMA

From the Beacon, Summer 2024

In this column, I’d like to talk about a recent and exciting change in the organizational structure of the MMA.

For many years, the MMA has been organized into four principal divisions: Administration and Finance, Communications and Membership, Legislative, and MIIA. This structure has served both the organization and its members well, providing an array of services and information that have become synonymous with the MMA itself.

With an eye toward enhancing these already high-performing teams and the member services that they provide, I have decided, effective July 1, to split the Communications and Membership Division into two separate divisions: a Membership Division led by Candace Pierce as Senior Executive and Membership Director, and a Communications Division led by John Ouellette as Senior Executive and Communications Director. This change means that John joins the MMA’s Senior Management Team and reports directly to me as executive director.

Functionally, I expect this transition to be seamless, and from a member perspective it should maintain, and more than likely enhance, your experience with the MMA.

The change reflects the growth and evolution of the MMA, just as the work of cities and towns continues to grow and evolve. A couple years ago, Membership added webinars to its portfolio, and more recently Candace has been leading our diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives. Communications has added the Massachusetts Municipal Data Hub and the online Handbook for Massachusetts Select Boards, with ambitions to expand its services to better meet your needs and support all areas of this organization. This organizational change recognizes how essential communications is to our success.

As we roll out this change, there are a few things that I’d like to underscore. First, I want to express my gratitude to Candace for her exemplary work leading the combined division over the years of her tenure. She has done a wonderful job stewarding the critical functions of both membership and communications and her work has put us in a place where considering this change became possible. Though our communications work will now take place in a separate division, I know that John and I will continue to rely on Candace’s knowledge and experience as we navigate the increasingly choppy waters of media and social media in the 21st century.

I also want to state very clearly how excited I am to be able to promote John into his new role. Later in July, he will reach an incredible milestone of working at the MMA for 30 years, during which time he has consistently performed at a high level, always pushing to improve and expand the MMA’s reach with its communications efforts. I am very confident in John’s ability to lead this new division, and I am very excited about working with him in this new capacity in the years to come.

I hope you’ll join me in congratulating John as he embarks on this new and exciting endeavor, and I hope that you’ll also join me in thanking Candace for her excellent effort leading communications over the past several years.