Valley Forge Summary

At first, I wasn’t sure what to write about how to incorporate Drucker’s teachings in the reading to a post. Part of the reason is most of the examples Drucker gave were that of the military, which is where most of my professional experience is. Because of that it was difficult for me to find ways to expand upon or update; even though the military does use new technology, we still learn things written in Von Steuben’s blue book from Valley Forge that taught the young colonial infantry how to participate in war.

But then it hit me; many of Drucker’s incites on management I was already planning on putting in motion; for the County Commission, I just didn't have the same vernacular as the reading to express it. While government isn't exactly the same as the corporate system, the county commission in West Virginia is pretty close. That is because the county commission is the administrators for the rest of the county government. They are in charge of the budget, regulations, implementing other higher laws, and maintaining infrastructure; making them essentially the managers for the county's departments. I have recently been speaking with current office holders, and candidates for office about creating something like a human resources committee. The main reason for this is because things like the environment, mission, and core competences are not addressed on a regular basis. There is the county charter and the state constitution that says what the county government can and must do, but it doesn't address the how to do it which is important. There are several departments in the county government, however they don't work together very well, often they are competing against each other in many ways, with their mission being just getting a task complete. And each department has a different version of what it sees as the environment, mission, or core competencies are, but all working for the same people they should have the same ones. But these are more important as time goes on, like the environment in all of West Virginia is changing. A recent report just stated that West Virginia is already in a recession, this year alone the coal severance tax dropped from $140,000 to $80,000 for the counties. That means most of the state will become more dependent on the eastern panhandle for state revenue. With that things like the state income tax and various sales taxes will increase. That makes Jefferson County's property tax, which is the highest percentage of income in the state at 1.8%, even more of a burden. That burden will see people moving away, …show more content…
Currently, there is a dispute in Jefferson County over unattended bodies, EMS says the sheriff’s department is responsible and vis versa. Meanwhile the only law says if there isn't a designated county or municipal entity to handle the issue to call a special task force located in Charleston, but that is impractical in the eastern panhandle. This could easily be an issue for the new HR committee, because if there doesn't seem to be foul play the coroner doesn't go, but that doesn't make it not a crime scene, and EMTs and paramedics don't have the owner to make that distinction. However, this is a perfect example of how to walk through effective decisions. There have already been 4 this year, and they are all still in chill boxes because no one will take