The CSSC 2012 Winter Leadership Retreat took place January 12th -16th in the beautiful San Jacinto Mountains near Palm Springs. Attendees stayed at the James San Jacinto Mountains Reserve, a beautiful research property and facility owned and operated by the University of California. Those of us from northern California expressed our surprise when we arrived and discovered that there are actual pine forests, wilderness areas, and mountains in Southern California! In fact, the James San Jacinto Mountains Reserve is home to California’s third largest Ponderosa Pine. Natural beauty and enough space for all of us under one roof made it the perfect setting to delve deep into the nuts and bolts, or rather, the roots and shoots, of the CSSC.
Thanks to the hard work of our Operating Team Co-Chairs, Tia Tyler and Jonathan Finley, 41 student leaders were able to attend the retreat. Tia and Jonathan, the resident superheroes, made sure transportation, housing, food, clean-up, discussions, and a terrific talent show all went smoothly.
Days and nights were spent getting to know one another, discussing, sharing, cooking, and laughing. We engaged in lengthy sessions about the organization of the Council, Operating Team, and Board of Directors. We debated the structure of campaigns and programs, and elected a fantastic new Operating Team. We worked through the process of consensus-based decision making, large group conversations (with extensive hand signaling), and communal living. So as we discussed the policies and functions of the CSSC, we lived and breathed them as well.
The CSSC acknowledges that organizing has to be sustainable, and that means not burning ourselves out. Intense and thoughtful discussions were broken up by team-building games, musical jam sessions, and beautiful hikes - including one nighttime adventure through the woods in the snow!
To me, the retreat demonstrated how beautiful it is when people have their hearts and souls invested in an organization and a cause. Investment. We are all willing to put in the legwork because we feel that this organization is ours, that the cause is ours, that our dreams are on the line and our visions are being played out right before our eyes. As we move into a new semester on our respective campuses, our personal passions will develop into tangible change, supported by the CSSC. The work done at the winter leadership retreat provides the structure to make that change happen.
