As COVID-19 has impacted operations for a lot of things, it didn’t stop the California County Boards of Education Board of Directors and Executive Board members from attending the annual retreat — virtually. Twenty-four members attended the event to brainstorm key tasks for next year and building up the organization.

The retreat kicked off on Friday afternoon with the Executive Board meeting. Friday evening brought the BOD together for an opportunity to get to know each other and share their desired outcomes for the weekend. Members were sent their own CCBE coffee mugs and cookies with the logo on them as part of the Friday get-together.

During the main portion of the retreat, the team looked at key tasks and strategic planning for the next year. The areas of focus were budgets, advocacy, regional visits and build-ing relationships with other organizations. Wonderful ideas and concepts were shared, and a task list was built for everyone to work on. Specific items included increasing CCBE marketing efforts with a video from the CCBE President sharing membership benefits and the direction of the organization, how to improve advocacy and work more with CSBA’s PACERs (Public Affairs & Community Engagement Representatives), virtual regional visits and ways to mentor future leaders of CCBE.

One item that will be put into motion at the CCBE Annual Conference is breakout meetings with regional directors. This will give members the opportunity to meet with their regional directors, talk about what is going on in their counties and share ideas. The hope is to build relationships with all county office of education members and get to know your COE needs to meet the current challenges schools are facing.

The CCBE Annual Conference will be held in a virtual format on Sept. 11 and 12. Please make sure to register for the conference to hear from wonderful guest speakers, current topics facing counties, and meeting with your regional directors.