What programs do members have access to?

 Who are the current members?

  Who is eligible to be a member?

  How does an eligible entity join?

  How much are annual dues?

What programs do members have access to?

Membership in the Urban Counties provides access to the following programs, services, and benefits:

The work of the Urban Counties is organized into five programs: The IGR program is the central focus of Urban Counties activities and consumes the lion’s share of staff time. In addition to advancing the interests of the urban counties in the legislative process, the IGR Program provides analysis of all proposed legislation, attorney general opinions, and proposed administrative rules. Reports and newsletters are produced by the staff and sent out to urban county officials as needed to keep them informed of new issues that may impact their counties. The Events and Programming Program covers all Urban Counties activities to develop continuing education courses for urban county officials that are tailored to their needs. This program covers all projects that provide services directly to Urban Counties members, like the popular Clippings service, whereby members receive a daily email containing clippings of interest to counties from newspapers on both the state and national level. The member services program is also instrumental in developing new programs of the Urban Counties to provide savings for county government, such as the exciting new TechShare program (see below). This program covers all of the work necessary to govern and organize the association’s activities on a day-to-day basis. The TechShare Program is a significant new program for the urban Counties, with the potential to realize substantial savings for Texas counties. The goal of the TechShare Program is to leverage existing technology based projects, assets and resources among the members to save counties money and improve IT systems and capabilities.

 

Who are the current members?

Who is eligible to be a member?

The following counties are eligible for membership in the Texas Conference of Urban Counties:

• a county having a population greater than 100,000 according to the most recent census figures;

• a county that is one of two adjacent counties that form one metropolitan statistical area (MSA) with a population greater than 100,000; or a county that is part of an MSA and is contiguous to a member county.

The following counties are eligible based on these requirements:

County

Aransas

Atascosa

Austin

Bandera

Bastrop

Burleson

Caldwell

Coryell

Crosby

Delta

Ector

Hardin

Irion

Kendall

Lampasas

Liberty

Medina

Montgomery

Orange

Parker

Potter

Randall

Robertson

Rusk

Smith

Taylor

Tom Green

Upshur

Waller

Wichita

Wilson

How does an eligible entity join?

To activate membership, an eligible county commissioners court would need to pass a motion approving membership in the Texas Conference of Urban Counties and authorizing payment of annual dues. Membership begins upon notifying the Urban Counties staff of this action.

How much are annual dues?

The membership approves the dues structure at the beginning of each fiscal year, starting in October. The 2008 dues structure is based on the following formula: each county pays $3,000 plus $0.022 per capita according to the most recent census figures. Dues are billed annually at the beginning of the fiscal year.