Write for GovMPA

GovMPA runs work by people who do this job, or have done it, or study it seriously. If that's you and you have something to say, I'd like to hear from you.

I'm not looking for much, and I'm particular about what I am looking for. A few things that describe the work that fits here:

What I'm looking for

Writing that comes from inside the work. The best pieces here are grounded in something real: a decision you had to make, a process that failed, a pattern you've watched play out across communities. Argument is welcome. Reporting is welcome. A close read of how something got covered is welcome. Expertise worn lightly is the house style.

A flat, honest register. GovMPA is dry more often than it's earnest. It doesn't perform. It doesn't inspire on command. If you've read a few pieces here, you know the tone: say the true thing plainly, let the arrangement carry the weight, and trust the reader.

A willingness to say the uncomfortable part. The pieces that work are the ones most people in the field think but don't write down. If your draft could have run in any trade newsletter without changing a word, it's probably not for here.

What I'm not looking for

No victory laps. No hero's-journey budget seasons. No invisible-burden infographics. If you've read the piece about local government's LinkedIn problem, you know the genre I mean, and you know it won't run here.

A few specific things I'm not interested in running: that we have the hardest job on the planet, that we're chronically underappreciated, that a manager is really just a private-sector CEO and ought to be paid like one. Those pieces write themselves, everyone in the field has read them a hundred times, and they flatter the reader without telling them anything. Motivational content built backward from a tidy lesson doesn't fit either. Neither does vendor copy dressed as insight.

How it works

This is early, and small. There's no compensation offered right now, but what I can offer is a real audience of people who do this work, careful editing, and a byline on a publication that takes the profession seriously. Contributors keep their own voice; I edit for clarity and fit, not to flatten anyone into mine.

If you have an idea, or a draft, or just want to talk it through, write to me at jerry@govmpa.com. Tell me who you are, what you do or did, and what you want to write about. That's enough to start.

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