According to Bob Burg and John David Mann, “success is a result of specific habits of action; creating value, touching people’s lives, putting others’ interests first, being real and having the humility to stay open to receiving.”
Burg and Mann are the authors of “The Go-Giver,” a book that tells the story of an ambitious man who finds success after applying the “Five Laws of Stratospheric Success.” These laws were found to improve success, both professionally and personally.
“At Jack Conway we live and work by the guidance of the Go-Giver. We encourage all members of our organization to immerse themselves in service to others and ties to the community, with no expectation of something in return. A personal and professional life committed to these principals is proven to be more fulfilling and more successful, and we see this happening every day at Conway,” said Carol Bulman.
To show our appreciation for those that strive to better their community, we are highlighting Jack Conway Go-Givers in a new series, and Steve Louko is up next!
Steve joined Conway Country in 2014. He works at the Hanover office, and takes an active role in local government, serving on the Hanover Select Board.
How are you involved in your community?
Steve serves on the Hanover select board and has been a member since 2021. He serves on the Master Plan Implementation Committee where he is the chairman and is also involved with the Hanover Affordable Housing Trust Fund board.
“The select board is the top policymaking body in the town,” said Louko. “We proof policies and procedures for the town, approve budgets for review, the town’s capital budget, review the operating budget, conduct public hearings for licensing businesses in town. The select board deals with a multitude of issues in town.
“The Master Plan Implementation committee was formed in 2018 after lots of public input on the direction that people wanted the town to go in and meets regularly to go over the points in the plan to mark their progress.
“The Affordable Housing Trust tries to support affordable housing in Hanover working on offering a Hanover affordable septic program to help residents in town upgrade their septics while they’re living there, and not wait until they plan on selling the home.”
Why did you decide to get into local government?
Photo from when Steve was running to save the historic building in the background. The town was considering selling it for apartments or knocking it down. He didn’t agree with either of those ideas for that location on the Center School campus.
Steve got involved when Hanover was considering selling the original high school building in the center of town a few years ago. The high school is right next to where his children go to elementary school, and the developer wanted to convert the old school building to apartments. Since it was the original school campus and the first high school that was built in Hanover, Steve saw value in keeping it, so he became a vocal opponent of the proposal.
“It ended up not happening,” said Steve. “It was kind of a convoluted process, but it ended up not going through. I was at some public meetings about it and one of the representatives that I serve with right now said ‘It’s good to come and be involved, but if you want to impact the decisions, people have to show up’, and ever since then I’ve been showing up.”
Why is showing up and giving back important?
“We all live here and are impacted by the decisions that local government makes, and we’re all part of it,” said Louko, who has had interest in local government for years. In high school, Steve was one of the kids that would hand the microphone around at the town meetings. He was involved in his Civics class and was part of restoring The Rockery monument in Easton.
“I find it all pretty interesting. So often you hear people complain about government and, you know, we live in a representative democracy and for the democracy to work we’re supposed to be involved in it. You’re always blaming that ‘proverbial they.’ You know, ‘they did this, they did that,’ but ‘they’ is really ‘us.’”
How has service impacted your life professionally?
“I’d like to think I’ve developed a pretty good standing in the community, and while I haven’t really directly tried to gain financially from it, it has absolutely benefited me personally.”
How have you benefited from giving back to your community?
Steve with Karen Polito when he received the MassTrails Grant award that he applied for and got for the town of Hanover for the Hanover Branch Rail Trail Extension.
The satisfaction of making an impact is the biggest benefit for Steve. He said that moving Hanover’s stalled projects forward is exciting and rewarding, mentioning specifically progress on traffic conditions in the center of town and developing a rail trail.
“We have an old rail line in town that – and Rockland and Abington have already developed their rail trail – the Hanover section has just been sitting on. Somebody that I spoke to about it at the time said ‘No, we looked at it years ago, we can’t do it.” And I said ‘Are you sure? We should try.’
“It was just viewed as being too difficult, and now, on Wednesday night we just got our approval by the Conservation Commission to break ground on the first section in Hanover.”
What would you say to someone that is considering joining their local government?
“Do it. Definitely do it. You meet a lot of people of all different backgrounds and it’s very interesting. In real estate you meet a lot of people and sometimes you’re dealing with technical issues, and in town government it’s very similar, and the skills are very transferable.”
Steve shared that although being in local government is on volunteer basis, the boards work best when people are passionate and go about things professionally. In the long run, the whole community benefits from it.
“For people that are going to be looking for their way to get involved at Town Hall, they’ll have openings for boards and committees that are looking for members. Try to find one that you’re interested in.”
Thank you, Steve, for all you do to support your community, for representing Jack Conway so well, and for being a true Go-Giver.
