CalSACC

My experience from the California Student Association of Community College (CalSACC) Spring Legislative Conference was incredible for me. It was my first time that I went to a conference. I learned a lot from each of the workshops that I went. Right now I am interesting in the parliamentarian procedure.

My adventure started on Friday when we left the school. I did not expect anything much from the conference because I have never been one. When we got there, I was exploring the place because I am a very curious person. In the first day we did not do a lot.

The second day, it was incredible. It started at 7:30 am with the breakfast; a lot of people were sleeping because it was too early. The first meeting it was at 9 am with the 2004 CalSACC Election Candidate Nomination & Acceptance Speeches. It was there where I learned that if you want to be a candidate for the election you need be nominated by another school, and your school can be second it or by another school. However there was a man who nominated himself. That means that you can nominate yourself, but mostly of the people preferred that others nominate them. It was another experience listened to the different speech that the candidates presented, some of them it was so passionate. They used different techniques to present their desired to be in the position.

The first workshop that I went it was Developing ASO Budgets by Javad Aghamiri. The person who presented was from Foothill College, therefore I learned more about my school. I did not know anything about the income of ASFC. There is a lot of money going around. After that we had a lunch. We started the second workshop at 2:45pm. I went to the Brown Act 101 by Chris Valenzano. I did not know what the Brown Act 101 is, and there is a lot of legal posting requirement for the Student Government Meeting. For example the agenda must be posted 72 hours in advance, which is three days before the meeting. The third workshop that I went, it was Parliamentary Procedure by the present President Pirikana “PJ” Johnson. I liked so much this workshop. I learned some rules, regulations, and procedures of running an effective meeting. I am learning more though Student Government. And the last workshop, it was No fear – Public Speaking by Karen Johnson. I learned different strategies to speak in front of people, like the “Secret Formula” 5 times a day, for 5 days. It’s means those five days prior to our presentation practice five times a day.

It is a shame that the day was almost over after day. They were a lot of workshops; I had liked to attend to all of them. We had a dinner after a long day of learning. For the end we had a meeting with our region.

Everything was really interesting, but I do not have word to describe. Everything was excellent. There is a lot of thing to learn and one day is not enough. I was exposed to different people from everywhere from California, and with the different leader. It was a wonderful experience that I would like to go next time, and I would encourage my friends to go. At the time that I was learning different thing I was building relationships with my roommate and friends.