AIM Networking Events Elm City

When Elm City's new board of commissioners took office in 2025, it inherited scattered records, years of overdue audits and a long list of financial challenges to address. The town of approximately 1,200 residents needed stronger financial systems, better recordkeeping practices and a path forward.

Around the same time, the League invited the town to join the latest Accounting Instruction & Mentorship (AIM) cohort. Elm City elected to participate in AIM, with Commissioner Linda O'Boyle, Mayor Gil Wheeler and the town's finance officer joining the trainings. Through individualized mentoring, webinars, networking opportunities and a proven framework of financial policies and best practices, AIM offered Elm City practical tools and support as it worked to rebuild its financial foundation.

“The AIM program has been invaluable, particularly in the aspect of finance and creating policies,” Commissioner O’Boyle said. “The mentoring has been wonderful, and the webinars have provided so much information.”

Through participation in the program, Elm City has been able to organize its town documents, properly code finances, keep accurate track of its budget, and begin catching up on its audits. The town plans to complete its second outstanding audit by the end of 2026 and begin work on the remaining ones in the coming year.

While AIM provides communities with technical resources and training, another key component of the program is fostering connections among local leaders facing similar challenges. For small communities where staff turnover can make institutional knowledge difficult to maintain, those peer networks can become an important source of support.

For Elm City, the opportunity to meet and learn from peers helped reinforce that the challenges they were facing were not unique and that other communities had successfully navigated similar circumstances.

This past summer, the program hosted a series of three AIM Networking events across North Carolina to foster these connections among participating towns. The gatherings gave participants an opportunity to build relationships, exchange ideas and discuss common challenges facing small communities, from financial management and staffing to long-term planning.

"It was helpful to know that other towns are grappling with some of the same issues we are," O'Boyle said. "Being able to share ideas, explore creative solutions and get information from the presenters leading the workshops has been vital to successfully turning the town around."

Those opportunities were made possible in part through support from Camber Foundation, which awarded the League a $137,000 grant to support towns in eastern North Carolina. The funding helped the League bring AIM participants together in Greenville and Fayetteville for an opportunity to learn from experts and share a meal with peers in other towns.

Combined with an event held earlier in the summer in Lewisville, the networking series connected more than 25 AIM communities from across the state.

For O'Boyle, one of the program's greatest benefits has been the relationships built with leaders from other communities.

"Being able to contact people, have questions answered and recognizing through networking that we're not the only ones, that there are other towns facing similar challenges, has helped keep us going."

As Elm City continues working to catch up on outstanding audits and strengthen its financial systems, town leaders say AIM has provided both the tools and the relationships needed to move the community forward. Their experience demonstrates not only the value of practical financial assistance, but also the importance of connecting local leaders with peers who understand the unique challenges facing small communities.