Jacqueline Beaudry - City of Ann Arbor

Jackie Beaudry has 19 years of municipal experience, and has served as City Clerk for the City of Ann Arbor since 2005.

Jackie’s municipal government experience began in township government, while serving as Deputy Township Clerk for Superior Charter Township in 1999.  In her role as City Clerk, she serves on the management team for the entire city – representing the viewpoint of professional clerks and influencing city-wide initiatives and decisions, through the professional lens of a municipal clerk.

Jackie was recently appointed by Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson to serve on a relatively small team of national and local election experts and officials to help design the implementation of election-related changes to Michigan’s constitution approved by the voters in 2018.  Jackie’s appointment to this team also includes the responsibility of making a variety of recommendations to the Secretary of State, Bureau of Elections, and Michigan Legislature regarding overall election process and rules on behalf of all clerks.  

Jackie was just recently-appointed to the Bipartisan Policy Center’s National Task Force on voter registration – working on national policy affecting voter registration, while representing Michigan clerks.  Jackie also regularly represents clerks through her participation in various Bureau of Elections Committees, including her recent participation on the Forms Review Committee.  She has also served on various MAMC committees, including her current service on the Legislative Committee.

Jackie is an advocate for clerks and the voting public, routinely stepping forward to help in any way that she can.  She recently partnered with the University of Michigan’s Turn-up Turnout Initiative, which resulted in a new college student election inspector program that allowed students to work in voting precincts on campus and still attend classes throughout the day.

Jackie helped launch Ann Arbor’s First Citizens Academy, which showcases all aspects of municipal work to the public, highlighting what goes into the day-to-day operations of running a local government, hopefully sparking community members to get involved in the future of their communities.

Jackie has also represented the United States on four international election observation missions in Europe and Asia. Despite all of her professional contributions and involvement, she makes time for her family, which is very important to her.  Jackie has been described as a “shining star for clerks” and as being “exceptionally-humble, universally well-respected, demonstrating the significance of the vital work clerks perform in service to their communities.”

Aileen Dickson - City of Troy

Aileen Dickson is the Clerk of the City of Troy. She has served as the Clerk since 2011. Prior to her service as the Clerk, she worked in the Clerk’s Office as an Office Assistant and Administrative Aide. She began her career at the City of Troy in the Police Department as a Records Clerk. She has a combined public service career that has lasted 18 years.

Aileen was on the Oakland County Clerks Association (OCCA) Board from 2014-2018; she served in all positions – Secretary, Treasurer, Vice President, President, and Immediate Past President. She has also been a member of the OCCA Legislative Committee since 2016. She has held memberships in the IIMC and MAMC organizations since 2009. She has given her time and commitment to the Election Management System Software Sub-Committee and the MAMC 2012 Conference Committee.

While the City Clerk, Aileen has implemented impactful programs such as REV-up Troy, a Do Not Knock Registry, and modernization of the OCCA message and brand. The REV-up Troy program stands for Register, Educate, and Vote. The initiative was to get students interested/involved in voter registration. This increased voter registration turnout by 98% at their registration drives and drove up the student election worker population by 90%. These are measurable results. The Do Not Knock Registry allows residents to register their addresses on a list that is provided to solicitors upon receiving their peddler’s permit. The modernization of the message and brand of the OCCA included updating the logo, implementing social media outreach, redesigning the website, and initiating the practice of providing branded giveaways at meetings.

Aileen has made great effort to promote the municipal Clerk’s profession, including working with nonpartisan organizations, such as League of Women Voters (LWV) to conduct voter outreach and registration drives. She also welcomes new citizens to the United States at the Troy Family Daze New Citizen Oath Ceremony. Additionally, Aileen speaks at local schools about being a Clerk.

Aileen has testified before the House Elections & Ethics Committee on behalf of all Clerks. She has hosted Clerk roundtables, Vital Stats training, FOIA training, and regularly shares her best practices with other Clerks.

Aileen is proud to be a voice for other Clerks, and for the residents of the City of Troy. She states that she regularly goes out of her way to offer assistance, collaborate, and defend Clerks and our profession.

Melanie Halas - City of Royal Oak

Melanie Halas started working for Royal Oak in 1995 as a municipal clerk in the City Clerk’s office and was appointed as Deputy Clerk in 1999.  In 2008 she was appointed as City Clerk of Royal Oak.  She has earned her designations as Certified Municipal Clerk in 2009, Master Municipal Clerk in 2012, and Certified Michigan Municipal Clerk in 2014.  She feels it is important to keep up with certification and attend training opportunities available so she can do the best job possible.

Melanie has been an active member of IIMC, MAMC, and Oakland County Clerk’s Association since 1999.  In 2015 she served on the State Bureau of Election’s Certification Committee and served on the Executive Board for Oakland County in the positions of Treasurer, Vice President, President, and Past President.  She has been on the Oakland County Clerk’s Legislative Committee for the past five years.

During Melanie’s tenure, Royal Oak has been a test community for the EPB and implemented using dual e-poll books during even year elections. They have been one of the first communities to accept electronic death certificate filings and now have forms and payment options linked to their website for citizens to request birth and death certificates, dog licenses, dog park passes, parking passes and more.  In 2017 she worked on a pilot AV Counting Board for Ottawa County in which they used a high-speed scanner to tabulate absentees for all communities in their county on Election Day, which was also the first time utilizing the new Hart equipment.

She shares her experiences with election catastrophes and the morning her City Hall flooded from a pipe bursting in an upstairs bathroom right above the Clerk’s office. Even with a foot of water in City Hall and water running down the basement stairs, her and her team worked together to run the election despite the damage.  The other story is a recent issue of a ballot shortage.  Melanie anticipated, by the volume of absentees issued, they would deplete their ballots in a short time. She came up with a backup plan ahead of time to copy ballots for voters to use on Election Day.  By noon many of her precincts had exhausted their supplies and her backup plan was put into play.  City of Royal Oak voters were not disenfranchised on Election Day despite the shortage.