Clerks, assessors and tax collectors have been part of Mississippi government for many years, but were first organized some 52 years ago during an epic meeting on the Mississippi Gulf Coast.

A group of 33 charter members met July 10, 1964, in the Sun Room at the Buena Vista Hotel in Biloxi and formed what came to be known as the Mississippi Clerks, Assessors and Tax Collectors Association (MCAC). Lloyd Lancaster was elected the first president.

In 1972, Mississippi became the first state organization to establish an ongoing extensive certification program, established through the Cooperative Extension Service at Mississippi State; three years later 46 clerks, assessors and collectors comprised the largest group of graduating clerks from a single state. Of that group, 46 finished the three-year course, 30 received state certification and 19 also received certification from the International Institute of Municipal Clerks (IIMC).

Today the certification training program is perhaps better known as the Mississippi Municipal Clerk Institute. Co-sponsored by the Mississippi Municipal Clerks and Collectors Association, the institute became the third to be accredited by IIMC in 1973 and is recognized also by the Mississippi Municipal Association. For many years the program was taught by P.C. “Mac” McLaurin Jr., longtime director of the Mississippi Municipal Clerks Institute. When he retired in 2008, Sumner Davis was named institute director and Janet Baird stepped in to coordinate the municipal clerks’ training program, bringing with her years of experience and insight gained as the Kosciusko city clerk. She retired from full-time work in 2014, but continues to work on special projects at the Extension Service on a part-time basis; Patrick Miller now serves as coordinator of the clerks’ certification training program.

The University of Mississippi conference for the clerks’ association was added in 1984 and has been held in early spring every year since then, with a Certification of Completion is awarded for participation in five hours of organized instruction. Bob Church, and later Bruce Bellende, of the Ole Miss staff worked with MCAC to coordinate this conference in the early years. Today the seminars are organized by the intrepid Renee Moore-Cain and her assistant, Cindy Heuser, of the university’s Continuing Education Division.

Some 3,000 clerks have participated in the clerks’ program since 1973, with 798 of those clerks obtaining state certification. Since 1973, 134 Mississippi municipal clerks have obtained the Certified Municipal Clerk (CMC) designation from IIMC; of that number, 26 are current members. For that same time period, 12 Mississippi clerks have been named Master Municipal Clerk (MMC); 9 of them are current members of the organization.

At present, the Mississippi Municipal Clerks and Collectors Association has 125 members, 118 of whom are current members of IIMC.