Between scholarships, the cost of conferences and its plan to create geocache sites in local municipalities, the Maryland Municipal League has been the subject of a number of community discussions of late. Some folks who have never heard of the organization have asked, "What is the Maryland Municipal League?"

During gulps of fish and chips at Harry's Main Street Grille in Westminster recently, I promised a faithful reader I would write about the MML.

So here it goes.

For more than 70 years, the MML has worked as an advocate for municipalities throughout Maryland. The statewide association works to strengthen the role and capacity of municipal government through research, legislation, technical assistance, training and the dissemination of information to members.

In the spirit of full disclosure -- I served as an member-at-large on the MML Board of Directors for five years, 2000-05. In the years I was a Westminster official I attended six MML summer conventions. (Hardly the record -- before me, my late father-in-law, Westminster Common Council President David S. Babylon Jr., attended 25 conventions between 1964 and 1989.)

Today the MML represents all of Maryland's 157 municipal governments, and two special taxing districts. It is a nonprofit, nonpartisan association.

The league dates back to the era of Franklin D. Roosevelt's "New Deal," and in fact that's where it started.

According to "MML: 50 Years of Service 1936-1986," written by Hinda Berson, the league was founded in 1936 and was organized by Annapolis Mayor Louis N. Phelps in order to help Maryland cities get "their fair share of the money available to all state and local governments from the Work Progress Administration under President Franklin D. Roosevelt's New Deal."

In the early years of the MML, there were two annual membership meetings.

The first convention was held Jan. 7 and 8, 1949, at the Lord Baltimore Hotel in Baltimore. It was at that meeting that the MML hired an "assistant secretary," Edmund Mester, to follow legislation during the General Assembly session. Thus began a tradition of the MML's presence at the General Assembly.

A June MML meeting has been held in Ocean City every year since 1949. "The first June meeting ... was held at the George Washington Hotel," writes Berson. "Fifty-four people took advantage of the special rates offered by the hotel: $4/night for a single room, $6/night for a double room."

Many Carroll County elected officials have served as president of the MML over the years, including Edward Williar of Union Bridge, 1961-62; Neal W. Powell of Taneytown, 1972-73; Lloyd R. Helt Jr. of Sykesville; 1984-85; James L. McCarron of Taneytown; 1997-98; and Jack A. Gullo Jr. of New Windsor, 1999-2000.

Harrison's northern exposure

Speaking of presidents, last week's Sunday Carroll Eagle trivia questions asked readers to name the American president who was nominated to stand for re-election at the last Republican National Convention to be held in Minneapolis-St. Paul, Minn., back in June 1892.

Dr. Patrick Turnes of Finksburg, Dick Snyder of Manchester; Ruth Anderson and Bob Miller of Westminster; Richard Siehler of Sykesville; Scott Creutzer of Eldersburg and Don Huber, Michele Johnson and Bob Wall (of undisclosed locations) all knew that Benjamin Harrison was nominated for re-election at the 1892 Republican National Convention. Johnson is this week's winner of the cherished Sunday Carroll Eagle mug.

This week's question is going to be harder and it involves one of my all-time favorite historical characters:

Who was President Franklin Roosevelt's "Deputy President" who ran the Works Progress Administration from 1935 to 1938?

Here's a clue, he was a social worker from Sioux City, Iowa. His impact on our nation continues to this very day. He is, in many ways, the real architect of the revolutionary changes in the role and function of government in the New Deal.

Think you know? Drop me an e-mail at kdayhoff@carr.org with Sunday Carroll Eagle in the subject line.

When he's not attending conventions, Kevin Dayhoff can be reached at kdayhoff@carr.org.

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