MENTORING A CLERK FOR THE DAY

ROXANNE BRECEDA, CMC, DIRECTOR OF NETWORKING

This year’s annual conference attendees will again be able to bid on a clerk to assist them for the day. This fundraiser helps provide scholarship opportunities for our association members. City Clerk Mindy Cuppy, MMC from the City of Sacramento, shares her story: Sylvia Bermudez gifted me a new friend!

At the 2022 CCAC Conference, then-First Vice President Marc Donohue approached me with an idea for a fundraiser – the opportunity for conference attendees to bid on seasoned (I think he meant old) clerks, so they could mentor another clerk. I agreed, as it was for a good cause. All CCAC fundraisers go towards scholarships for members. I was a bit apprehensive, that no one would bid on me, so I lined up a couple of friends and promised to reimburse them.

Although I was not the clerk with the top fundraising amount, I was honored to stand amongst outstanding clerks I admire, Dawn Abrahamson and Stephanie Smith.

The top bidder was Clerk of the Board Sylvia Bermudez from Coachella Valley Water District, who gifted me to the lowest-tenured clerk in the audience. City Clerk Delores Pedersen, from the City of Willits, was the last person standing amongst the nearly 200 attendees, having been in office for five days.

Delores and I exchanged contact information, and after some time, I got the pleasure of attending her city’s first post-COVID in-person council meeting. I had the opportunity to get to know Delores personally, and after my trip to her city, I now have a new friend! She worked with the City of Willits for 17 years before being promoted to City Clerk. Delores embraces our profession and is doing a fantastic job! Despite what our job entails, like the public records requests she received, a request for video footage of the airport, Delores handled that request accordingly and pleasantly.

Thank you, President Donohue, for your unique fundraising idea, and Sylvia Bermudez, for your generous donation to CCAC. Thank you, Delores, for being a remarkable City Clerk and my new friend.

I cannot express how valuable it is to our association's clerks. This is selfless devotion to duty. Mindy Cuppy, you are extraordinary! Sir Isaac Newton, the English physicist, and mathematician, once said, “If I have seen further, it is by standing on the shoulders of giants.” He acknowledged the importance of the discoverers who came before him.

Should you attend this year’s Live Auction during the Annual Banquet and Award Ceremony, , we hope you remember this article, and the wonderful contributions of our fellow clerks like Mindy Cuppy, Sylvia

Bermudez, and Delores Pedersen. CCAC fundraising events help further the career, knowledge, and even simply the well-being of members. Thank you to all for taking the time to read this article and making a difference in our association. We not only are standing on the shoulder of giants, but we are also building back better and selflessly doing an act of kindness.

If you are interested in volunteering to be auctioned off as a “Clerk Mentor for the Day” during Thursday’s Banquet and Live Auction on Thursday, April 13, please contact President Marc Donohue, CCAC President.

Make it a great day, clerks!