Excerpted from: News and Ideas, University of Wisconsin-Extension

By Joel Bradtke

If you were to name a UW System campus that Wisconsin's municipal clerks and treasurers would claim as their alma mater, it would most likely be UW-Green Bay. That's because, since the 1980s, more than 470 of them have graduated from the summer institute programs held there.

The Wisconsin Municipal Clerks and Treasurers Institute provides all the educational credentials that clerks and treasurers need as part of their professional certification, say Sue Gullion, outreach/extension program manager. Gullion has been associated with the institute since 1993 and has served as its director since 1995. The institute program is a three-summer curriculum. Clerks and treasurers can attend a fourth year to cross-train in each other's specialties.

The institute is a comprehensive training program for local public servants. Gullion's Governmental Affairs Outreach office works closely with a statewide advisory committee of clerks and treasurers, and their respective associations, to assure that the curriculum meets their needs and helps qualify them for certification.

"These advisors are the best way to track that the program addresses their job needs," said Gullion. She noted that the state clerk's association values the program so much that it contributed $5,000 to the institute.

Margaret Brubaker, clerk at the Marathon County village of Stratford, has been involved with the institute program for over a decade. She graduated fom the clerk's program in 1990 and came back to take the treasurer's "completion" course in 1997. "Now they're teaching us more of the things we really need to learn. It's a little more flexible."

Brubaker says that she and her colleagues gain a lot of self-esteem through courses on public speaking and leadership, as well as the more traditional curriculum on statutory matters.

"When you're in your community, you're the only one of your type. But when you get together at UW-Green Bay, you're with people who understand, and you tend to form life-long friendships," said Brubaker.

The institute will be held July 11-16 this year. Director Gullion and her advisors are adding an "alumni" track which will be open to all institute graduates, certified municipal clerks and certified municipal treasurers. The registration deadline is June 23.