Hello Fellow AUCCCD Colleagues,

I hope that everyone had a good end to their academic year and will have some time for some well-deserved rest, relaxation, and vacation time.  I know for myself that the months when the majority of the students are away from campus provide me the opportunity to catch up on everything that I did not get done during the academic year!  It also provides me the opportunity to find the top of my desk!  I always seem to start each term with a clean desk, and that lasts about a week.

I am looking forward to seeing everyone that can make it 2024 Annual Conference.  This year, the conference will be held at theSheraton Grand at Wild Horse Pass in Phoenix Arizona from October 12 - 16. 

I wanted to highlight that the conference committee has been working diligently to adjust the conference schedule due to the fact that our typical start day (Saturday), falls on Yom Kippur, one of the High Holy days within the Jewish religion.  The committee partnered with many volunteers who were going to be directly impacted and worked to find solutions.  We apologize greatly for this – but we believe we have made some great adjustments to the schedule so that no member will miss any social or learning opportunity.

I invite you to click thislink to see the Schedule at a Glance.  We are still working on assigning the specific programs to times, but what you will see here is that the conference will officially kick off on Sunday morning this year with the 1st Business Meeting.  We will be recording this so that any member that is unable to travel prior to sundown on Saturday night will not miss anything.  We will also be looking to have members that do pre-conference presentations offer a virtual presentation later in the year.  We have worked the schedule so that no continuing education credits are lost, and all social events (Welcoming Reception, Tours, State Dinners etc.) are all still within the schedule.

As I write this, we have one keynote secured, and we are working on our closing plenary keynote speaker.  We are working to secure keynotes that touch on the key issues facing our campuses today.  This conference is shaping up to be awesome.  I look forward to seeing everyone in October in sunny Arizona. Please know that you are always able to reach out to me, or any board member at any point in time should you have a concern.