Volume 45 Number 2
San Joaquin Delta receives Colmenares Award
Three local chapters of the Community College Association demonstrated they had the “write stuff” when CTA announced its Communications Awards recently.
San Joaquin Delta CTA, Rancho Santiago Community Education Faculty Association, and Coast Community College Association were among the winners of the 2008-09 CTA Communications Awards. San Joaquin Delta received the Jose Colmenares Award for outstanding overall contributions to communications, while Rancho Santiago received the Ralph J. Flynn Award for its website, www.rsccdcefa.com. The Coast College association was honored for its newsletter, the Part-time Faculty Flyer.
Honored at Council
San Joaquin Delta CTA mobilized its members and the community last year to not only replace board members with more faculty-friendly trustees, but to keep watch over the business of the college while it was going through a Grand Jury investigation. Faculty association members Steve Schermerhorn and Sam Hatch were instrumental in creating a communications plan that included a political action committee and a crisis committee to educate members about the issues during tough negotiations with the district.
Making use of a list-serve and an easily accessible blog, at www.sjdcwatch.blogspot.com, the union was able to keep its members current on important developments throughout the year. The chapter also distributed handouts and fliers on campus and in the neighborhoods of the trustees, and organized news events that included the picketing of a campus ground-breaking ceremony. In addition, Sam Hatch received the nickname “Hatchet Man” by the trustees for his letters to the editor and guest editorials in the Lodi News-Sentinel and Tracy Press. As a result of these efforts, the chapter was able to become a real resource for local media.
The Coast Community College Flyer was honored in the Newsletter and Newspaper category for chapters with 500-999 members. The newsletter is sent out to 950 members, administrators and trustees and is distributed at three of the colleges in the district and seven sites.
Colmenares was manager of CTA’s Communications Department from 1977 until his death in 1984, while Flynn was CTA’s executive director from 1976 to 1995. San Joaquin Delta and United Teachers of Los Angeles were each honored with the Colmenares Award during the CTA State Council meeting in Los Angeles on January 30.