The Baltic Exchange Program of Local Government Administrators
"A Grass Roots Democracy Initiative"

"The success of democracy on newly emerging democracies throughout the world will depend largely on the perceived manner in which public services are provided at local government level."

         Dr. Bill Shendow, director of the INSTITUTE for GOVERNMENT & PUBLIC SERVICE

The Baltic Exchange Program of Local Government Administrators is the INSTITUTE for GOVERNMENT & PUBLIC SERVICE's grass roots democracy initiative, designed to enhance democracy by improving the democratic administrative skills and knowledge of local government administrators in the newly emerging democratic states of Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia. The exchange program was initiated in the summer of 2003 when from two local government administrators from municipalities in Lithuania came to the campus of Shenandoah University for two weeks of classroom instruction and on-the-job training.

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Four Participants in the 2008 Baltic Exchange Program

 

    Erin Maloney, the assistant director of the City of Winchester’s Juvenile Detention Center, and Martha Shickle, the City’s director of housing, along with the Institute Director Travis Sample, spent nine days in Lithuania this past May visiting government municipalities. This trip marked the sixth year of the Baltic Exchange Program; the first five sponsored by the Marsh Institute. A highlight of the trip was a meeting with the Rector (President) of Kaunas Technological University, Dr. Siauciunas, who is very interested in establishing an exchange program with Shenandoah University; exchanging both students and eventually faculty as well. Along with Dr. R.T. Good, Shenandoah’s dean of international programs, we are pursuing this possibility. Baltic Exchange Program Dr. Siauciunas, Martha Shickle, Erin Maloney and Dr. Sample.

Shenandoah hosted two Lithuanian government emplyees last month: Asta Maskolivnaite, a senior specialist in the investment department of the Pasvalys District Municipality; and Darius Makarevicius, who is a chief specialist with the Kaunas Municipality Council Secretariat (dept. of corruption prevention and control) visited the City of Winchester from June 16-26. Living on the campus of Shenandoah University, both Asta and Darius attended dozens of city public hearings, planning and zoning committee meetings, as well as connected with many departments that support Winchester. But it wasn’t all business, their visit also included a tour into Washington, D.C., to visit the Holocaust Museum, the Smithsonian as well as the new Air and Space Museum (Udvar-Hazy Center) at Dulles International Airport.