A DAO in The Life: DAO Meeting Recap

Thank you Gloucester County VA!

Steve Wright, MPA, George Bains and several other wonderful Gloucester County staff and Board Chair Mr. Christopher Hutson hosted our Deputies, Assistants, and Others (DAO) meeting on April 20, 2024 at the Fine Arts Museum of Gloucester.  What a great County and we were all impressed with the downtown area, historic buildings, and amazing food options.  Have you ever had a 5-pound donut?  Ok, I think the one I ate was lighter but it almost broke my plate.

I’m proud to report that we had about 30 DAO’s from around the state attend!  Cody Sexton wins the farthest drive at roughly 240 miles from Vinton.  Thank you again, Gloucester, and for all that attended.

If you didn’t know, the DAO meetings are a great way for each of us to express our achievement and challenges in the localities we work in, in a judgement-free environment.  Trust me when I say, we all share the same thoughts on those items.  It’s a little eerie when we are in the meeting and one of us says, “you will never guess what a citizen said during citizens time at our last meeting!”  Yep.  We all have stories and I’m thankful for the DAO meetings to let us all know we are not alone. 😊

I also want to make a quick plug for volunteers for the next meeting location and for ‘DAO In the Life’ article contributions.  Alysse Dowdy (ald5zm@virginia.edu) and I (tekilduff@hanovercounty.gov) can help walk you through the meeting steps (someone for Spring 2024 and someone else for Fall 2025).  Please let us know.  On the other hand, the monthly article is very simple.  What you are reading is my article!  Write about whatever you want.  As my 12 year old son would say, ‘no cap for real for real.’

See you at the Summer Conference!

Todd Kilduff, P.E., Deputy County Administrator in Hanover County

DAO Chair