Dear Colleagues,

I will never forget my first introduction to MACCA. 

It was 2005, and I had arrived at my first MACCA conference. The people who greeted me at the registration desk were friendly and welcoming, and just as new member Jim Fick said to me last year at his first MACCA conference, I knew I had found ‘my people.’

I learned so much from the internationally celebrated lineup of keynote speakers and concurrent sessions at the conference that year. Not only were the conference volunteers and board members friendly and welcoming, but my fellow conference attendees were kind and generous too; they were very open to sharing their experiences with me - a first-year career advisor who had a lot to learn.  One year later, I joined the board and became more and more active within the organization.

Since then, MACCA has given so much to me in the way of knowledge, inspiration, friendship, and leadership experience. Not to mention the many mentors I have had over the years, many of whom I met at that very first conference. Now, as president of MACCA, I finally have the opportunity to give back to the organization and its wonderful members.

MACCA offers so many enriching, relevant opportunities to its membership. There are free Careerwell teleseminars and spring and fall webinars presented by leaders in the career counseling field.  E-Interact our membership-authored newsletter, provides knowledge on all the latest topics. Need advice? With over 300 members, our LinkedIn group is active with folks eager to share information and offer solutions. And perhaps our proudest achievement is the annual fall conference which brings progressive topics and international, local, and regional speakers together in a supportive, energized atmosphere.    

Because our members mean everything to us, we promise as an organization to continue to spend our dollars and cents responsibly, to respectfully negotiate the most favorable conference and speaker fees, to utilize volunteer-power, to strive to be green, and to continue to offer multiple platforms of CEU-quality professional development at an affordable cost (or even free) when possible .  All in an effort to keep our membership fees and educational costs practical.  

I encourage all of you to engage with us; to provide feedback; to interact with us on LinkedIn , Facebook, and Twitter; to participate; to own. This is your association - your ‘people’ – and I hope you will take advantage of all that MACCA has to offer.  

Sincerely,

Carolyn Yencharis Corcoran

2012 MACCA President