CCCI Fall 2023 Conference
by dara, FA Vice President
Mary Gross, Annie Ngo, Billy Gunn, Ruth Gay, and I attended the California Community College Independents (CCCI) conference October 26-28, in San Diego.
The “hot topics” of this conference were full-time hiring, professional development requirements, and DEIA language in evaluations and the current related lawsuits.
Along with the usual legal and legislative updates, and discussions about negotiations, we reviewed data provided—by each attending district—through a pre-conference survey. The topics on the survey included union dues (ours is the lowest payroll deduction percentage), salary increases, philanthropic endeavors of each district, relationships with Academic Senates (not everyone has the same outstanding relationship we have with our Senate), recent negotiations of DEIA criteria in evaluations, longevity structures in contracts, tracking of office hours, and overload limits. Through reviewing this data, and listening to the other districts, our team gets to come away from the conference feeling proud of our work and what we’ve accomplished for our faculty. We are also, again, reminded of how fortunate we are to have strong working relationships with admin and our Senate leadership. Of course, there will always be issues to work through, and perhaps some upcoming tougher times, but attending these conferences helps to give us information and ideas about strategies for future negotiations.
This year’s fall conference was quite different because the new CCCI President, K. Frindell Teuscher, asked for and implemented feedback about how to make the conferences more interactive. So we had small-group discussions—for the first time ever—about the CCCI Vision, Values, and Strategic Priorities and for participants to get into groups based on negotiations strategies, grievance officer concerns, and statewide advocacy. This new format for the conference was very well received and a much-welcomed change!
As always, if you’re interested in more information, you can contact any member of MCC’s FA Exec, and you can visit the brand new CCCI website.
