At their meeting on June 10, the Tyler City Council heard presentations from the 2008-2009 Tyler Apprentice Program (TAP) participants that proposed to implement a Citywide volunteer program, and to implement a youth vocational program, and to further enhance the use of existing software citywide.
TAP, which was created in 2005, established an empowered network of employees who comprise a secondary organization structure that reports to the City Manager while being temporarily grouped for problem-solving projects.
Each year, three separate eight-member employee teams are created and are focused on developing projects to enhance City operations. Members are chosen from recommendations given by Department Leaders and, once formed, the teams elect their leader and co-leader. Each team is assigned a leadership mentor who serves in an advisory capacity only.
Each team is self directed and empowered to come up with a team name and to identify a project that addresses a problem or creates an opportunity within the City organization that is consistent with the S-E-R-V-E (Streamline, Empower, Respond, Venture and Evaluate) goals of the Blueprint. Once a project has been identified, the individual TAP teams are responsible for completing research on, developing a budget for, and presenting the project to the Budget Committee and City Council.
“The Tyler Apprentice Program has had a major impact on the City of Tyler,” said City Manager Mark McDaniel. “The City has benefited from the projects presented by the different teams, while participants learned more about the organization as a whole and developed important leadership skills.”
The Council took no formal action today on the proposals as they will be reviewed by the City budget committee for possible inclusion in the proposed fiscal year 2009-2010 budget, which will be considered by the Council later this summer.