John Amrhein
Michigan State University Extension
401 N. Lake St., Suite 400
Cadillac, MI 49601
(231) 779-9480, (231) 779-9105 fax

MSU Extension has for nearly 40 years provided educational opportunities for county commissioners, with the New County Commissioner Workshop being the cornerstone program. Over the years, other programs in finance, budgeting, current issues, conflict resolution, strategic planning, Open Meetings Act, and other topics have been added. In 2002, several of these were incorporated into a Commissioner Academy. In addition, we strive to be a technical resource on the subject of county government, and build strong working relationships with commissioners. The workshop will present an overview of the programs we do for county commissioners, partnerships utilized, examples of technical assistance provided, and discussion of the value of the programs to commissioners. In this era of term limits and tight budgets, commissioners appreciate having an educational resource to turn to. Further, the relationships developed often continue as relationships with state legislators as elected officials move on to other offices.