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Making a difference for members and students!

5/4/2006

Classified employees make a difference in the life of a child everyday

Classified School Employee Week is almost upon us. This is the week designated by our State Legislature recognizing the “Essential Work” all you “Extraordinary Workers” do, day in and day out. Classified employees make a difference in the life of a child everyday. From preschool children to adults, all students are someone’s child and we never forget that. The Legislature is proud of what you do. Your Association is proud of what you do. Now we want you to be PROUD of what you do.

As winter turns to spring, another important season is coming to a close for CSEA. That’s our main training
season. We’ve recently held some large and valuable member training sessions--most notably, our Chapter Presidents Retreat and our Legislative Conference. We’ve tackled two long-term and important issues for the union, our strength in the political arena and developing talented, motivated leaders for our chapters.

This year we made some changes to how we approach the Chapter Presidents Retreat (CPR). While the curriculum has evolved in the 5 years we’ve been holding this event, not much had changed substantially. But this year, instead of limiting the attendees to only current chapter presidents, we made chapters a unique offer. If your chapter president had attended before, or if he or she just couldn’t make it, then send us your first vice president. This invitation has already paid huge dividends. Presidents and vice presidents from across the state were trained in all aspects of chapter leadership, from communication, to delegation, to understanding chapter finances. We trained just under 200 new leaders, and all went away with newly acquired knowledge that will help them to be more effective leaders.

This past month, more than 300 members attended our annual Legislative Conference in Sacramento. In addition to meeting with the CSEA-endorsed candidates for state constitutional office, our members learned how important it is to lobby on issues of significance to our Association. We then proceeded to the State Capitol to put what we learned into motion. Our members delivered our message as designed, so all legislators knew who we are and what is important to our membership.

Why spend this valuable space talking about training events that have already taken place? So that you, our members and future leaders, know that we don’t ask CSEA members to do anything without also offering top-tier educational opportunities to go along with the effort. We take tremendous pride in the quantity and quality of the courses we offer.

School districts and colleges often ask us to provide professional development training for their employees. We offer training all year long through our Training department and I encourage you and your chapter to take advantage of the various topics available to you within our Single-Subject Training offerings. Look on the Web page for a current listing of what is offered.

Take pride in your work and take pride in your Association as we honor one another during Classified School Employee Week.

In Strength and Unity,

Rob Feckner
Association President

President's Message Archive