Hello WACAC Members:
It was an honor to serve you as WACAC President this past year. As large and diverse as our membership is, our devotion to our students and our professional ethics connect us. Events of the past year created an anxious environment in which we did our work, but neither firestorms nor media storms could deter your mission of serving students and WACAC’s mission of serving you.
I hope you are proud to belong to an organization with the following accomplishments in the past year.
- Being the first NACAC affiliate in the nation to eliminate membership dues for public high school counselors.
- An overwhelming response donating time, resources, and funds to those impacted by fall fires in NorCal and SoCal, such as ten $500 college textbook scholarships to selected graduating seniors of Paradise High School.
- Enacting the Elaine Berman-Gordon Chalmers Memorial Scholarship Fund to provide relief and support to counselors and students impacted by natural disasters in the WACAC region.
- Providing eloquent, impassioned representation of our profession by our members to journalists and community members during the media frenzy after the “Varsity Blues” story broke.
- A highly successful Super Conference in Phoenix that thoughtfully and thoroughly addressed the struggles DACA students and other undocumented students face in Arizona and the rest of the nation.
- Formation of an Ad Hoc Committee focusing on Independent Educational Consultants’ (IEC) needs, ensuring a voice on our Executive Board.
- Targeted political advocacy regarding the string of proposed laws reacting to the college admission scandal – adding our voice in defense of our profession and assisting legislators by addressing burdensome and unfair aspects of laws as they move through the legislative process.
- Enhanced leadership representation from, more student programs in, and new professional outreach to our underserved geographic neighbor – Nevada.
- Entering into an agreement with the College Board for WACAC to take over operation and control of the annual “Summer Institute”, partially in 2019 and fully in 2020.
- Passing a 2019-2020 balanced budget of $837,000 and selecting the Long Beach Convention Center as the site of our 2020 WACAC Conference, May 27-29, 2020.
I want to thank all those who added to the chorus of voices we heard this year, all those who volunteered at events we ran all over California and Nevada, anyone who participated in one of our many, varied committees, and all of you who work tirelessly every day to make a difference in the lives of students with whom you work. Have a rejuvenating summer.
Marc McGee – Director of Admission, CSU Maritime Academy
WACAC Past President