First-ever Permit Technician Leadership Retreat held to support and educate permit technicians

Permit technician chapter leaders from around the U.S. came together from July 22–23, 2022, for the first-ever Permit Technician Leadership Retreat held in Troutdale, Oregon. Hosted by the Oregon Permit Technicians Association (OPTA), the leadership retreat was attended both in person and virtually by leaders of state chapters, building official chapter associations, permit technician committees, and the national PermitTechNation (PTN) chapter.

After returning home from the 2021 International Code Council Annual Conference held in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Serena Locke, a certified permit technician for Jackson County Development Services in Medford, Oregon, and Tela Gardner, a permit coordinator for the city of Kenmore, Washington, discussed holding a leadership retreat for permit technicians. Both Locke and Gardner are leaders in their state chapters: Locke is vice president of OPTA and vice president and education chair of PTN, and Gardner is vice president of the Washington State Association of Permit Technicians. Locke proposed the idea to the OPTA board and in its mission to “Support and Educate Permit Technicians” the chapter moved forward with plans for the retreat.

The OPTA and PTN chapters came together in planning the event; PTN was a major sponsor of the event and OPTA’s laser focus made the retreat happen. The days were packed with collaboration with other chapter leaders — sharing ideas, forms and documents; learning about the various technologies that could be implemented to make leading and communication easier; mentoring; and working on how to improve and retain membership. There was great discussion on education for chapters as well as ideas shared on how to develop individual classes. Cecelia Muela of 4Leaf and Women Leaders in Code Enforcement joined the event and spoke to attendees on “Leading from Within,” which inspired participants and set the tone for the whole weekend.

In addition to the two full days of learning and collaboration, the OPTA board and the city of Troutdale were able to share some of the best Oregon has to offer with beautiful, clear warm days and an evening dinner cruise up the Columbia River Gorge. In the days after the event, attendees communicated how magical and productive the weekend was — missions were reimagined to dream bigger and go bolder.

Permit technicians have a unique challenge in development departments. Some wear many different hats — from court recorder and finance, planning and utilities, to admin assistant to building officials. Permit technician chapters train and support a vast array of skillsets for development departments across the U.S. The leadership retreat was an opportunity to synch our focus and be better positioned to support new or struggling chapters, ourselves, our members and take this profession to the next level.