The general consensus on this year’s General Council was that it was the best ever. It also may have been the shortest. With no more essential business to conduct, President Dave Hart adjourned Sunday night, eliminating the need to return on Labor Day.

For photos of GC, click on the “About Us” tab, then “Governance.”

Elections: All three CSEA board officers, President Dave Hart, Vice President Donna Snodgrass and Secretary -Treasurer David Okumura (an ACSS member), were easily reelected. For the first time, they will serve three-year terms. The next GC will not be held until fall of 2012.

Affiliate Day: ACSS’ Affiliate Day, held Friday, was a strategy session led by consultant Eric Douglas. See a separate story on this activity in this blog.

ACSS videos: ACSS produced four videos specifically for GC. These videos will now be used for future recruitment and information meetings about the organization. They are all short, and we are posting them on this Web site. To view them, click here.

Woman of the Year: President Arlene Espinoza was named ACSS’ Woman of the Year. This year, being the first time GC was held as a joint-effort among four independent affiliates, four Women of the Year were named. Espinoza became an ACSS activist the first week she promoted to supervisor, more than 20 years ago. She is not only ACSS’ first woman president but also was its first woman vice president. She has participated doggedly in efforts to improve salaries and working conditions for state excluded employees and was lauded by board member Evie McKenna, who introduced her, as being “always there to listen to the concerns of the members.” The other three winners were Cindie Fonseca of SEIU, Mary Dennis of Retirees Inc. and Christine Thomas of CSUEU. The woman were chosen by a committee representing all four groups and headed by ACSS lobbyist Sherrie Golden. They receive engraved sterling silver bracelets.

Bylaws: This year, the GC delegates smoothly dispatched with 24 budget and policy resolutions. Six were referred to the affiliates or the CSEA board; 14 were adopted and four failed. One of the failures was a proposal to halve the size of the GC delegation. One issue that was bolstered was the autonomy of affiliates, rather than CSEA, to advocate for their own members’ benefits. A more complete discussion of the bylaws will follow in the next issue of Today’s Supervisor.

Fun: Amidst all the work, the Member Benefits department scored big hits with their Wheel of Forune and Carnival Room. The Benefits staff gave out 700 prizes, including a laptop, to wheel spinners. To earn a turn at the wheel, delegates had to visit the four affiliate information tables and 16 of the 25 vendor tables – proved with hole punches. The vendors set up in the Carnival Room that also featured games most people hadn’t played since they were kids.

The rest of the story: The GC weekend, Friday through Sunday as it turned out, featured several workshops and seminars. Included were discussions on CalPERS retirement and Proposition 8, a film on single-payer health care, and a special showing on Friday of the film “Milk,” the story of San Francisco’s martyred gay supervisor starring Sean Penn. This film was presented by the CSEA Human and Civil Rights Committee, chaired by ACSS Vice President Elnora Fretwell.