On Affiliate Day, ACSS completed the first step in its effort to strategize the organization’s future. President Arlene Espinoza characterizes the planning project with a question: “Where does ACSS go and grow?” The daylong workshop was led by Eric Douglas, president and CEO of Learning Resources Inc. of Sacramento. 

Eric had the members work in several rounds of small groups to brainstorm ideas and visions and then share with the full assembly. There was easy consensus for the top goal: to increase membership and members’ participation, beginning at the chapter level. One original idea for doing this was to offer new members a mentoring program. Other goals included increasing political activity, improving ACSS’ public image, and building on our emerging training program with more relevant classes that would qualify for promotion credits. 

In determining goals for the next two years, members suggested: finding ways to make excluded employees’ salaries a line item in the budget and having salaries set by a commission, rather than the DPA (a proposal that was almost unanimously supported); increasing district office visits; hiring a spokesperson to help improve our public image; increasing chapter budgets to attract members to meetings; expanding ACSS’ lobbying presence; surveying members to learn their needs; forming member interest groups; finding the personal “driver” that entices someone to become a member; and making ACSS a “household name.”