June 10, 2005.

It is my task at this time to tell you about the state of our CCDAA Association. I will tell you of our association state by delineating some our accomplishments during this 2004-2005 Fiscal Year. I first want to say thank you to CCDAA’s current state board and those with whom I have served. I have learned so much and am appreciative of the opportunity to have served CCDAA as an officer. My comments too will refer to "we" that "we" speaks to State Board, our Public Policy Advisors in Renee Herzfeld, Tim Fitzharris, Cliff Marcussen our Section Boards and our Membership as a whole. My coming comments are not necessarily in order of accomplishment but as they came to me.

This year has been an interesting one. Two State Presidents have served; Kathy Lafferty and myself. The current Southern Section State Board Members were not serving in their current capacity during our Summer Planning Retreats last July of 2004. Children’s Home Society graciously gave CCDAA a financial gift to enable the hiring of our 1st ever-Executive Director . We hired and worked closely with Moira La Mountain an Executive Director Search Consultant who helped us immensely in hiring our ED. We have worked to be thorough, thoughtful and expeditious in this ED hire process. We are excited and pleased with our ED selection of Nina Buthee.

Our association sponsored and secured an Author on two legislative bills this session; one on Preschool Full Day/Half Day Centers (Mullin AB 927) and one on Training Days (Mullin AB 1095). Currently these two bills are alive, well and moving through the legislature.

We developed a proactive response to the AP Best Practices/Error Rate Study that was disseminated widely to colleagues in and out of CDE. We were asked for and have Representation on CDD’s CPIN and Best Practices Committees. We have representation on the CPIN State Wide Advisory Committee facilitated by the Sacramento County Office of Education.

Our standing respective task forces that address issues regarding Campus, FCCEN, CCR/CMR’s and CCDAA’s Association/Organizational Development have accomplished excellent work.

We have secured the services of our first ever Administrative/Clerical Assistant in Teresa Bonetti. Teresa’s enthusiasm, flexibility and many abilities have served us well this year. Teresa, you are very much appreciated. We recognized the in kind member work of Maureen Wilson of Kidango who helped CCDAA immensely in the initial stages of our web site development. We hired Daniel Tet to take us to another level of web site sophistication and user friendliness. I want to say yet another thank you to Amy Nih from Options who continues to give of her in kind time to our association in consulting with us on financial matters and developing our monthly Income/Expense Reports.

Upon her retirement we have recognized Pat Dorman, long time publisher of on the Capitol Doorstep for her tremendous contribution to the child development and education community. We held a wonderfully successful Annual March Conference in San Jose where record breaking attendance and profits were realized.

We wrote and submitted testimony on CDE’s proposed Child Care and Development Plan for the Future Fiscal Year of 2006-07. We have representation on CDE’s committee to help in the planning of Superintendent Jack O’Connell’s Spring 2006 Summit on Preschool for All. We are continuing discussions with CDE about supplanting/supplementing funding issues and correct accounting practices regarding private, local and state funding streams. We wrote letters and talked in person with legislators about our bills and other bills that will benefit children. We were platinum sponsors for CDPI’s Fall and Spring Forums where esteemed speakers gave much information on California’s State Government operational and budget developmental process.

We met with CAPPA Representatives to discuss our similarities and differences in how to navigate the legislative process regarding the Error Rate Study/Best Practices and other issues. We talked about how our two associations can communicate more effectively with each other.

We continue to appreciate Michael Jett and his taking the time to meet with us on a regular basis for excellent colloborative conversation. We said good by to Michael’s secretary, Christy and welcomed Kay, Michael’s new secretary. We have continued to work in making our most populous state in the union seem more friendly and supportive at least in the child development community. We did this through respectful consistent communication….using effectively and efficiently all the communicative means available to us.

Thanks to Dee Tucker, Sheridan DeWolf and Jolie Herwick for facilitating the many logistics allowing this two-day event (yesterday and today) to occur.

This year, we have continued to fly Southwest Airlines for the most part (where every seat is a first class seat) and meet, eat, stay and sleep at the Holiday Inn Capitol Plaza…yes these our homes away from home. Just wait until you have a refurbished sleeping room at the Holiday Inn…Wow, yes it is the little things.

And now, my many thanks to you for the opportunity to have served as your State President. It has been a pleasure to have helped in accomplishing these tasks, as we have together been many voices conveying one message.

Respectfully Submitted and Delivered at the June 10th, 2005 CCDAA Statewide Meeting by Bruce Ramét- Out Going State President