CCEU manger awards given at All College Day, 2010
Rick Fillman intro:
Good morning, members of the Board of Trustees, members of the Cabrillo community, and fellow employees of the Cabrillo Community College District. Isn’t this a great place to work?
You expected Stephanie, didn’t you? Our president, Stephanie Stainback, is away on medical leave – recovering nicely, I understand.
Standing in for Steph is a tough gig, so we brought along, today, a village council of CCEU leaders, who will each speak shortly.
My name is Rick Fillman. I’m into year number two as at-large CCEU board member; also representing CCEU at Faculty Senate.
I’ve been employed now going-on-five-years in the Planning & Research office, where we endeavor to assist this institution in understanding itself (and its students), in order to be able to make informed decisions in the midst of change.
CCEU - the Cabrillo Classified Employees Union, for 3 years now, operating independently of any umbrella affiliation, and doing just fine, due to strong leadership, and 100% participation from our 230 plus members.
Our organization serves our members not only in collective bargaining, but also as the shared-governance voice for Classified.
As you know, it is our members who are doing all of the work behind the scenes and outside the classroom – keeping the grounds beautiful, the buildings (more and more them) clean and maintained, phones, computers, network and web functioning, handling course scheduling, accounting, and budgets; greeting and assisting arriving students (more and more of them) in Assessment & A&R - as well as providing assistance in many classrooms and working with students in tutorial labs.
We are often invisible, even to each other. We wear Turquoise, when we wish to be seen. [Ask all members to stand, and be recognized.]
I attended a Flex-week session the other day, where we discussed what makes this place special. It was said that “we demand civility” from each other. I found myself wondering where this comes from, and I think it’s comes down to valuing equity and respect – with the expectation that these work both ways. It’s these values which will see us through tough times.
Jill Gallo- Kathie Welch:
This year, keeping in mind the simple, unavoidable truth that change is inevitable, but growth is optional, CCEU would like to present a special award for Meaningful Leadership in Collaborative Change Management. The very worthy recipient is Dean of the HAWK division, Dr. Kathie Welch. CCEU recognizes her for her strong leadership by not only supporting a culture of collaboration, but for doing the hard work to see concepts through to implementation.
Kathie reached out to our own Diego Navaro, and his colleagues, Bill Veltrop and Peter Gaarn, to work with Allied Health classified staff, faculty, management and administration – bringing us all to the table over the course of a year to create new organizational management strategies that included all of our voices and all of our perspectives. In so doing Kathie has created an environment where very real, and often very challenging, open and honest dialog can occur. From those dialogs innovative new models were generated from the collective wisdom of her entire team. This has allowed us to clarify and define each of our roles, how we interact with one another, create more efficient ways of doing our work, define common goals, and has ultimately increased our synergy as a group.
The product of this process is new organizational models for our work group, but perhaps even more important is a common vocabulary and a commitment to a different kind of culture. This truly collaborative culture provides a foundation of communication and problem solving methods essential to implement and sustain the kind of innovative growth that we need for the changing world we all work in. Instead of finding and naming problems, Kathie has generated constructive energy and led the group in finding meaning and insight, which has led to inclusive solutions and participant owned plans. Thanks to her vision and real leadership we are all more able to step up to the daunting challenge that greets us each day - to support more students, who have greater needs, while doing so with rapidly dwindling resources.
We deeply appreciate Kathie’s investment in her team, her dedication to this innovative approach, and her ability to see the long range value this kind of personal growth activity offers to the college, where each individual’s professional excellence is the greatest asset. We hope that other groups on campus will follow her lead and are able to create opportunities where a diverse set of ideas and perspectives can intersect to strengthen our entire village.
Olga Diaz- Sesario Escoto:
The theme today is “it takes a village,” and we know that in order to be a successful village we need encouraging and collaborative leaders. Leaders that will listen and pay attention, and to do their best to make sure their villagers have the necessary resources do their jobs. With this exemplary leadership in mind, CCEU would like to present the 2010 Administrator of the Year Award to Sesario Escoto. As classified members of the Cabrillo village we are proud to serve next to leaders like Sesario. He is the kind of leader we want to be in the village with. Sesario leads by example. He is very accessible, understanding, and warm hearted. He encourages and supports student and staff development. He’s a tireless leader. In these times of limited resources, Sesario’s dedication and enthusiasm motivate us to keep the village together. Gracias, Sesario.
Mikki Adams- Barb Durland:
I can’t tell you how personally honored I am to present the 2010 CCEU Manager of the Year award to my own first boss here, CTC and Computer Labs Manager, Barbara Durland.
You can blame Barb for bringing me into the village, for my transformation from student to student worker to classified colleague. But that’s not fair because she’s responsible for bringing us lots of other, way better workers, too - and for helping us keep them.
Our IT trenches are notable for especially long tenures among the classified staff and managers - atypical at The College, unheard of within the churn of tech fields. And Barb is a big reason why the people of IT want to stay in our village - because she understands the Return on Investment when you build teams to last down through the semesters.
Most tellingly, “her people” speak of how great she is to work for AND with, interchangeably. Barb is way more than a manager; she is teacher, co-worker, and advocate to her band of computer warriors, cultivating a deep appreciation for the mission of The College and ownership of jobs defined by constantly changing challenges - and the occasional challenging villager.
Then Barb is gracious when those workers are ready to leave that nest and take the skills they’ve learned to the next level, often elsewhere on campus.
Despite her kindness,dedication, compassion, and leadership, this is her greatest gift to our village; that wherever any of us go on campus, before anything, above everything, we think of our students. Think of their experience, their struggles, of how to better serve them this semester.
Barb gives to Cabrillo villagers that give to Cabrillo. Stable, connected, inspired individual members of the tribe whose commitment, continuity and longevity benefits the college in the most fundamental way, makes Cabrillo what it has been for 50 years. A community. A village. Thanks, Barb!