I want to thank you all for your ongoing engagement and unanimous support for the amended Bylaws. We received a significant response from our members with nearly unanimous support for the amended Bylaws. Here is a look back at what we have done and what’s next for CCCAOE.

Three years ago we employed the services of a legislative advocate to provide us with a voice in Sacramento and guide us as we set and implemented the strategic goals of our membership. We have engaged in substantive conversations with external organizations and the legislature about career technical education and workforce issues. The leaders of this organization will continue to work on the issues of concern with other organizations and build

In the 2003-04 and in our current economic downturn, the immediate response was to rush to lobby the legislators and explain the relationship and importance of the community colleges to the failing economy. We are always asked to produce a list of short-term training programs that will provide the unemployed with quick re-training options as evidence of our importance. Our goal is to create enduring relationships between the legislators and the colleges so they will know the integral connection between the dollars spent at the colleges and their local economy. 

What is next? We need to build relationships with the legislators at the local level.  San Diego/Imperial Region has agreed to develop a model for working as a region to accomplish the goal of informing our legislators about the career technical and workforce programs in our region. Our tentative plan is to inform all of our regional leaders of their legislators, and create a cycle for bringing them to the colleges. We will bring our model to you at the 2011 spring conference. Stay tuned!

I look back over my tenure with this organization, and appreciate what I have learned and what we have accomplished together. We have over the last few years transitioned from a reactive association to a proactive organization with a presence in Sacramento and a strategic plan to advance career technical and workforce education in California. Thank you.

 . . .Mollie Smith, Palomar College, Immediate Past President