PRESIDENT'S MESSAGE

by Chris Jahnke

The year 2009 has been very successful and productive year for MCCA.  It was the goal of the Board of Directors and various committees to focus on continuing to provide high quality training opportunities to the members.  MCCA is a unique organization in that our membership is not solely comprised of a specific professional entity.  Our membership base consists of corrections professionals from various county and state agencies, non-profit organizations, treatment centers, mental health practitioners, and chemical dependency counselors, just to name a few.  We welcome anyone who has a desire to acquire knowledge in order to better assist them in improving the lives of the individuals they serve.

The backbone of MCCA is our Training and Education Committee.  The trainings and presenters they assembled for 2009 were outstanding.  It is because of all their efforts that we experienced a boom in our membership from 200 to just over 400 members!!  Because of this increase, we plan to expand our Training and Education Committee to offer even more training opportunities in 2010.  The current economic status and the impact it has had on budgets has been very unfortunate.  Training budgets have been heavily impacted.  You can rest assured that MCCA will continue to be an affordable option to assist you in fulfilling your training needs. 

Special congratulations to the MCCA award winners this year:  David Leal received the Robert H. Robinson Award.  He is employed by the Department of Corrections as a Probation Agent in Buffalo, MN.  Bridget Letnes was awarded the Board of Directors Award.  She served many years on the board and now is involved with the Training and Education Committee.

We look forward to 2010 and all of the challenges it will bring.