The United States Conference of Mayors’ 88th Winter Meeting will take place January 22-24, 2020 in Washington, DC. It will be presided over by Rochester Hills Mayor Bryan Barnett.

The United States Conference of Mayors is the official non-partisan organization of cities with populations of 30,000 or more. There are over 1,400 such cities in the country today. Each city is represented in the Conference by its chief elected official, the mayor.

The Conference holds its Winter Meeting each January in Washington, D.C. and an Annual Meeting each June in a different U.S. city. Additional meetings and events are held as directed by the Conference leadership.

Conference members speak with a united voice on organizational policies and goals. Mayors contribute to the development of national urban policy by serving on one or more of the conference’s standing committees. Conference policies and programs are developed and guided by an Executive Committee and Advisory Board, as well as the standing committees and task forces which are formed to meet changing needs.

During the Conference’s Annual Meeting in June, standing committees recommend policy positions they believe should be adopted by the organization. At this time, every member attending the annual meeting is given the opportunity to discuss and then vote on each policy resolution. Each city, represented by its mayor, casts one vote.

The policy positions adopted at the annual meeting collectively represent the views of the nation’s mayors and are distributed to the President of the United States and Congress.

In addition to the ongoing work of the Conference’s standing committees, mayors are organized into task forces to examine and act on issues that demand special attention such as civic innovation, exports, hunger and homelessness, and brownfields.