SPA Graduate Information Session

This evening I attended an ASU School of Public Affairs Graduate Programs Information Session, hosted by Nicole Boryszka. This career event was a learning opportunity for me since I will be assisting Nicole in hosting some of the career events this summer. 

During the career event, I shared my experience of ASU's Masters of Public Administration program with undergraduate students and professionals in the public and non-profit sectors. It was a rewarding experience to see the energy and excitement in the potential students eyes as they learned about the same degree that I am getting right now. I shared about my favorite professor, Dr. Gerald Miller, who teaches PAF 506, which is a class about Public Finance and Budgeting. Although that is not a class everyone finds enjoyable because of the math involved, I found the information very rewarding and his style of teaching very relaxed and enjoyable. 

I also talked about how the degree was feasible while doing a full-time job at the same. Although it is very difficult, I have been able to get almost all As in my first two semesters for my MPA degree. It is not something that everyone can do, but it's something that I have been able to be successful in throughout my academic career. Have I had much of a social life? No, not as much as I prefer, but I have been able to maintain healthy relationships with my closest friends.

The career event was a good opportunity to learn more about the expansion of the graduate programs at ASU for MPA and MPP degrees as well as offered me an opportunity to share about my experience in the program so far.

My Name is Boaz, B-O-A-Z

All I can do is thank my parents for giving me the name Boaz.

"Hello, my name is Boaz. It rhymes with topaz."

"Hello, I'm Boaz. That's spelled B-O-A-Z."

"How do you say your name? Bose?" 

My name is probably one of the best conversation starters when I meet people for the first time. For those of you reading this blog, you probably have one of a few initial reactions (not limited to these, but these are the most common):

• Is that a family name?
• *A confused face*
• Are you Jewish?
• Wow, what an awesome name!
• Is your wife named Ruth?
• Boaz, that's a Spanish name right?
• Boaz? Is that your last name?
• Oh Boaz...like the snake?
• Like the anthropologist Boaz?

 And the list continues, but I'll leave it at that for now. Probably the most memorable reaction to my name was by one of my freshmen high school teachers, Mr. Miller, who said:

"Boaz? That sounds like a lumberjack name. If your name is Boaz you should have a really deep voice."

Just to give some clarity on the background for my name, my parents chose to call me Boaz because of the biblical story found in the Old Testament in the book of Ruth. Also, Boaz either means "swiftness" or "In Him is strength", with Him referring to God. My parents are both Christians who saw Boaz as a very positive character and someone who represented a godly man. Although not a common biblical name in the United States like Jacob or Matthew, they decided to go with it.

The simplified version of the story of Boaz and Ruth is this: Ruth, a recent widow, moves to Israel with her widowed mother-in-law Naomi to live in poverty. Ruth picks up the grains that harvesters leave behind, and one day she happens to be doing it in Boaz's field. Boaz has favor on her and generously allows her to have more grain for herself and her mother-in-law. Ultimately, Boaz ends up marrying Ruth in fulfilling biblical laws.

Here's an artistic rendition of the biblical account of Boaz and Ruth (see Wikipedia for more details).

If you can't tell by this point, I am very glad my name is Boaz. It's unique at least in the United States (it's apparently a fairly common name in Israel) and I highly doubt there's another Boaz Witbeck in the world today. Even though spell check doesn't think my name is correct, I'm happy to be me. Hopefully this explanation gives a little background to my name and maybe you've gotten to know me a little better.

My life wouldn't be the same if my name wasn't Boaz.

Power of a Focused Life

Mike Bickle

This blog post is dedicated to a podcast/sermon I listened to in the Fall 2013 semester by Mike Bickle, the Founder of the International House of Prayer (IHOP-KC). His sermon is called the Power of a Focused Life, which is a sermon series about how you can manage your time and have a vision to live your life to the fullest.

One of the basic premises of the sermon is that many people waste their time and do not have a plan for their weekly or daily schedules. He based the sermon off of Proverbs 29:18 (KJV):

"Where there is no vision, the people perish: but he that keepeth the law, happy is he."

Most often we end up spending our free time on things that we do not want to do in actuality. Mike Bickle recommended making a weekly schedule where every hour, half an hour, or 15 minutes is scheduled. Because my personality like detailed plans, I chose to make a schedule with 15 minute segments.

As I mentioned in my first post, I am working a full time job at American Express on the graveyard shift. Without exaggeration, a full-time 3rd shift job while taking 12 credits hours a semester for my MPA program is very difficult to accomplish. For any person who works 3rd shift, they know it's hard to sleep in general let alone when you have other responsibilities to manage.



Here is just a section of my Sunday to Saturday schedule from 4:00 a.m. to 8:45 a.m.

I knew that this podcast series was very applicable and after two semesters of customizing my schedule, I see positive results. Having a vision for your life in both the short term (weekly schedule) and the long term (years from now) is very important.

I found that with a planned weekly schedule I was not wasting time nearly as much and I generally stuck to the plan about 70% to 80% of the time. Mike Bickle in the series states that if you're able to keep your schedule 80% of the time, that is like an A grade. Even the best micromanager will not keep to a schedule 100% of the time. That's just not how life works.

I highly recommend listening to at least the first podcast in the link above. This series revolutionized the way I approach my goals and my schedule. If you get nothing else from this blog post, remember to continually ask yourself this: am I spending my time in a way that I want to use my time?

My Daily Schedule

As I wrote in a previous blog post, I am working predominantly with the Finance Director of the City Manager's office in AJ to put together the Annual Budget Book for Fiscal Year 2014/2015. My typical daily schedule is as follows:

• Read through e-mails and updates to the budget book that I receive from the Finance Director and respond to all other e-mails from city staff to experience other learning opportunities (ex. tours, meetings, etc.).
• Work on updating a section of the budget book (see FY 2011/2012 for an example). The bulk of the section that I will be editing is the "Department Expenditures / Data" section that gives an overview of the costs for each department as well as details such as the mission, goals, and performance measures for each department.
• Participate in other learning opportunities (ex. tours of city facilities, attend a meeting, researching other city documents, etc.)
• Meet one-on-one with city staff to ask questions and discuss options for the projects that I am working on

So far I have been enjoying my time at the AJ City Manager's Office and I am exciting for everything that is in store for my future.

Germs, Gun, and Steel

One of the goals that I have for this summer and even during the regular spring and fall semesters is to be reading or listening to books that I am interested in, but are not necessarily related to my major. A predominant trait of mine is just a love of learning. I always want to make sure I am up to date on current events, current research that is important to know from a holistic perspective, and just to know information that ultimately could relate to what I do in the future. Guns, Germs, and Steel has been one of those books that is on my list that I've wanted to read.

Originally published in 1997, it has become an important book to describe the differences between the rise of peoples around the world. My younger sister had read this book for a grade school class and seeing that I could borrow the audiobook for free through the Tempe Public Library, I could not pass up the chance to listen to it.

This posting is going to be a brief review of the major points of this book and the main lessons that I am taking from listening to this book on audiobook.

 

Before I dive into the details of the book, I want to preface with a short explanation of why I am interested in the topic of "The Fates of Human Societies". One of the major contributing factors to my interest in Jared Diamond's Pulitzer Prize winning book is my interest in Sid Meier's Civilization computer games. In this game, they incorporate the principles of this book in a competitive turn-based game between various fledging civilizations that are seeking to expand in technology, land, and culture throughout a usually fictional earth. My experience with these games and my interest in the differences between the growth of civilizations in the world sparked my interest to listen to this audiobook.

 

The primary points of Guns, Germs, and Steel are as follows:

• The myth that some races are more intelligent than others which gives explanatory power to why some people groups are more technologically advanced than others is a false analysis and a non-factor in explaining humanities' differences
• Guns, germs, and steel are effects of more basic causes of humanity's technological advancement, which stem in geographical locations and the ability for civilizations to produce high amounts of food
• Geographical placement of people groups is the primary effect which determines whether a people group will develop new technologies
• The main determinant of whether a society would take the leap from being hunter/gatherers into modern tribes, chiefdoms, or states was the factor of domesticating high-calorie crops, which primarily includes being able to domesticate cereal crops (ex. wheat, corn, rice, etc.)
• If the civilization was able to domesticate productive crops and if their continent contained animals that were able to be domesticated and used for meat or labor, then they would have an even higher likelihood in having the food production to increase their population and support non-farmers who could be craftsmen, bureaucrats, and other non-food producing citizens
• Also, most of the populations in the Americas, Australia, and New Guinea were isolated because of geographical reasons from other productive people groups, and unfortunately they did not have many domesticable plants that would support large populations or domesticable animals in their region
  
  By no means am I doing justice for Jared Diamond's book by describing his major arguments in 6 bullet points, but this will give you a taste of what the book is about if you choose to pick it up in the future. I highly recommend reading his book and educating yourself about the history of humanity and how we got to where we are now.

Introducing Apache Junction's City Manager's Office

I work for the Apache Junction City Manager's Office, which oversees all city services, executes of city ordinances and programs, forms the overall city budget, and provides assistance to city council to make decisions for the best interest of the citizens. The breadth of areas they cover is widespread, which includes public safety to parks and recreation.




This is the front of Apache Junction City Hall and where I am interning this summer.

The city of Apache Junction is about 37,000 in population (rising to over 50,000 in the winter due to temporary residents) and is 37 square miles, located east of the city of Mesa and west of Gold Canyon, with most of the city's land located north of U.S. Route 60.

I will be specifically working closely with the Finance Director of Apache Junction in reformatting and adding the newest information to the Annual Budget Book for Fiscal Year 2014-2015. I will be assigned other projects throughout my internship with AJ with the Assistant City Manager and other assistant to the City Manager, but I will be predominantly focused upon producing the content for the main sections of the budget book, which will be published on the Apache Junction website and distributed to the general public. The project is less detail intensive than the comprehensive annual financial report (CAFR) and shows a bigger picture to those who are not comfortable with very large financial tables and accounting terms.

I am excited to be a part of the Apache Junction City Manager Team in serving the city as well as the general public for clearer dissemination of information that is important for transparency and promotion of city services.



Hello from Boaz...Who Is Almost in AJ City

Hello, my name is Boaz Witbeck and I am a second year masters of public administration student  at Arizona State University. To start my blog, "Boaz in AJ City", it only makes sense to introduce myself.

Here are a few interesting things about me:

• I am the oldest and only boy in my family. I have 3 younger sisters whom I love dearly
• I work full time on a graveyard shift at American Express speaking with Aussies and New Zealanders on the phones
• I am involved in my church, Tempe Vineyard Church where I teach Sunday school, help with the Audio/Video Team, and am active in my Bible study group
• I played tennis for 4 years of high school and still occasionally pick up my racket for exercise and fun
• I have a dry but silly sense of humor and I love to make others laugh
• I just celebrated my 23rd birthday about two weeks ago

I am excited that I will be interning for the city of Apache Junction (known as AJ) and I will be working within the city manager's office under the budget director and the special assistant to the city manager. I am very grateful for this opportunity to learn and grow in my career skills and hope to build upon what I have learned in my MPA degree to apply it in practical ways in AJ. I will begin this upcoming Tuesday!

My primary project for the summer will be to fold the Capital Investment Plan (CIP) into the annual budget. The three goals I have for this internship are as follows:

1. To learn the many ways that the CIP fits into the overall budget plan and to find the best fit from the options I will research for AJ
2. To build professional relationships and get to know the roles and importance of various persons within the city manager's office
3. To prepare myself to be a budget analyst and a future leader in city government

This blog will range from personal topics to discussions about what I am learning in my internship with AJ City. I hope you enjoy the blog and learn something about yourself through my experiences and thoughts.