CCCI’s Spring 2026 Conference: AI, Cats, Healthcare, and More!

by dara, Faculty Assembly Vice President

On April 23-25, Mary, Billy, Michelle Farnam, and I attended the California Community College Independent Unions’ (CCCI) Spring Conference in Berkeley. This was Michelle’s first time attending this conference, and it was a terrific one for a first-timer.

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For the past few conferences, I have helped organize and plan the days’ activities and discussions. We had a mix of information and fun group work with some levity to break up the many serious discussions we had about our current realities in California Community Colleges.

Throughout the three days, each district shared current happenings at their colleges: successes, challenges, and future expectations. We also discussed the bi-annual District Data Survey and governance and dues structures.

We had small group discussions about recent pressing legal issues with CCCI’s and FA attorney, David Conway. He visited each small group to spend time responding to questions.

We had a presentations from the CCCI Legislative Committee, from FACCC—presenting on legislation and on advocacy in local board elections, and by David Conway. He received questions prior to the conference and shared information about “Scope of Bargaining Under the EERA”; “Requests for Information under the EERA and CPRA Requests”; “AI in the Workplace,” where there are several new Senate and Assembly bills dealing with AI; “Intellectual Property”; “Enhanced Accessibility Requirements (Title II)”; “Interaction Between Board Policy, Administrative Procedure, and the CBA”; and many other topics.

A whole-group discussion focused on AI and its impact on community colleges and was enlightening, of course, as well as a little alarming; people came to the mic to share concerns and ask questions about AI and our districts. We also had a panel discussion—“Organizational ‘Spring Cleaning,’” during which two union presidents—one local and one statewide--and Evan Hawkins, organization management specialist answered questions about strategies for organizing, prioritizing, and leading unions; planning for succession; communicating with members; and advising unions that are struggling with organization. It was an insightful discussion, and the panelists were open with their previous struggles to get their union “ships” afloat.

As part of the newly formed Outreach Committee, I updated the group in terms of the purpose of the committee, what we have accomplished so far, and what we plan to do next. The most important idea to share with you is this committee will increase awareness of CCCI by strengthening recruitment of other independent unions and improving our membership portal to provide useful and necessary information for current and potential members.

CCCI Executive Board elections were held on Saturday, and all incumbents were reelected with the exception of VP of the Northern Area: Optimism One, English faculty at Modesto Junior College and President of Yosemite Faculty Organization will serve in this role. Former VP, Kathy Perino from Foothill College, will remain on the Legislative Committee where she has done terrific work for the group. I am happy to be continuing as VP for the Southern Area and Chair of the Outreach Committee.

You might be wondering, “But wait, dara. What about the aforementioned cats?” April 24^th was National Hairball Awareness Day, so as the self-appointed Fun Officer, I used photos of famous authors and their cats to put people into groups. Each author photo had a quote of something they said about cats or a poem they wrote about cats. CCCI conference attendees now expect some sort of creative way to get into breakout group discussions, and they say I deliver!