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Welcome back to The Bend!
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The Bend follows a simple rhythm each week. The Eddy Line opens with a one-line thought or
observation, something short enough to remember but worth thinking
about. What the Current Pulled Toward dives a
little deeper into where the previous week’s energy went, whether that’s
a project, a partnership, or a personal lesson learned. Signal Fire highlights a person, place, or initiative
that deserves some attention. From the
Field, shares a small anecdote about the broader outdoor
recreation economy from Oxbow’s non-profit arm, the VA
MTNS Outdoor Collective. And One Thought Worth
Sitting With closes things out with a brief reflection or quote
that will hopefully help guide you through whatever you may be dealing
with.
It’s part journal, part field note, and hopefully
something that makes you pause for a moment before diving back into the
current.
Author’s note: the views, opinions, and observations
expressed in The Bend
are my own and do not represent any employer, public agency,
organization, or individual. Where applicable, they reflect only my work
through Oxbow Strategies and the VA MTNS Outdoor Collective.
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“Just because you can doesn’t mean you
should.”
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What the Current Pulled Toward
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This week the current pulled toward
optics.
Public
service is full of decisions that can be defended on paper. They can be legal, ethical, properly authorized, and
completely within policy.
That still
doesn’t always make them wise choices.
Optics can be dismissed as worrying too much about
appearances and sometimes that criticism is fair. Public servants
shouldn’t make every decision based on who might complain about
it.
But perception has a place in the
conversation because public trust has a place in the work. People rarely see the full context behind a decision. They
may not know the history, the policy requirements, the conversations
that happened beforehand, or the constraints that shaped the final call.
What they do see, though, is the decision itself and the message it
appears to send.
That applies to far
more items than money. It can be who gets
invited into a conversation and who doesn’t. Who receives recognition.
How a public meeting is handled. Whether an official attends one
community event but skips another. The tone of an email. A picture
posted at the wrong moment. Even silence can communicate something that
was never intended.
And yes, sometimes
it is an expenditure. A purchase can be
budgeted and completely allowable while still being difficult to defend
when employees are being asked to cut costs or residents are being told
resources are scarce. None of these things
necessarily mean someone did anything wrong. Oftentimes it simply means
that someone stopped the decision-making
process one question too soon.
“Can
we?” is important but so are questions
like:
- How will this be
understood?
- What message are we
sending?
- Are we treating people
consistently?
- Would I be comfortable
explaining this decision
publicly without
becoming defensive?
That last one has
become a pretty useful test for me. I’ve also
learned that you can’t manage every single interpretation. Someone
determined to see bad intent will usually find it, one way or another.
Trying to anticipate every criticism, though, is a quick way to become
paralyzed.
However, that’s still
different from ignoring the obvious. Public
service comes with visibility. Titles and authority and access all bring
a responsibility to think beyond intent and consider
impact.
-
Mike.
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Virginia Economic
Developers Association has worked to
strengthen the practice of economic development across Virginia. The
nonpartisan association brings together local, regional and state
economic development professionals along with people working in
transportation, utilities, higher education, finance, real estate,
engineering and other fields that influence the Commonwealth’s
economy.
Its role extends beyond
professional development and networking. VEDA describes itself as
Virginia’s voice for shaping economic development public policy, and it
develops an annual policy platform before each General Assembly
session.
Throughout the year, the
organization tracks legislative issues, communicates with members and
provides input on policies affecting Virginia’s economic competitiveness
and communities.
Economic development
involves plenty of competition.
VEDA
also creates room for cooperation.
That
combination has served Virginia well for more than four
decades.
To learn more about VEDA,
click
here.
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Advocacy is one of those parts of the outdoor
economy that can be almost invisible until a policy decision lands close
to home.
Things like funding for
trails and recreation infrastructure, access to public lands, tariffs on
outdoor products, conservation policy, and state investment in outdoor
recreation all eventually show up somewhere on
the ground.
The Outdoor Industry
Association’s 2026 policy agenda focuses on conservation and recreation,
outdoor access, international trade, sustainability and state policy.
Its advocacy includes direct engagement with Congress and state
legislatures, along with giving outdoor businesses tools to participate
in those conversations themselves.
That’s
worth paying attention to at the regional level, too.
Organizations representing outdoor businesses are not
simply networking groups. They can help translate what individual
businesses are experiencing into a collective voice that policymakers
can actually hear.
A bike shop may not
have a government affairs staff. A guide
service probably doesn’t either.
But the
policies being debated can still determine what those businesses pay,
where their customers can recreate, and whether their communities
receive investment in outdoor infrastructure.
Advocacy gives them a seat in the conversation before the
decision is made.
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One Thought Worth Sitting With
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This week’s theme: Optics.
“Character is like a tree and reputation like a
shadow.
The shadow is what we think of it; the tree is the
real thing.“
-Abraham Lincoln
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