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After my first President’s Column appeared in the January/February issue of SACRAMENTO LAWYER, I received a number of comments from friends and colleagues that the goals for my year as President were both necessary and ambitious. Many also said that these goals would take a Herculean effort to realize. In light of this feedback, I thought it would be appropriate to give you an update on where things stand with respect to these goals now that we are approaching the month of June. As a reminder, I let you know back in January that “[i]n the coming year, I intend to focus my energies on three priorities: (1) a long-term strategy to maintain the SCBA’s administrative functions by preparing a succession plan for our Executive Director, Carol Prosser, for the time when she decides to retire; (2) increasing and maintaining our membership, especially among newer and younger attorneys, to renew and maintain the health and longevity of the SCBA; and (3) keeping our Association competitive as a source for information, education, and ideas in a fiercely demanding world of internet access, unlimited information resources, on-line mediums, and a multitude of other professional organizations and companies, both for-profit and non-profit.” Since the beginning of 2009, I have appointed members to the following new committees: a Long-Range Planning Committee (working on my first goal), a Membership Committee (working on my second goal), and a Website Committee (working on my third goal). All of these committees have now met and are working on proposals for consideration by the full Board of Directors. The Long-Range Planning Committee is developing a handbook of procedures and policies to guide our Association in future years and to memorialize the vast institutional knowledge of our Executive Director, Carol Prosser. The Membership Committee, in conjunction with the Executive Committee, planned and held a membership phone-a-thon in March and continues to explore ways to stabilize and then increase our membership numbers, with helpful input from the Voluntary Legal Services Program and the local judiciary. Finally, in what I hope will be most visible to all of our current and future members, the Website Committee is working on dramatic changes to our website, in terms of both content and layout. By the end of the year, you should see some exciting changes when you browse www.sacbar.org, including new pages for our sections. As you might imagine, without a number of dedicated members’ devotion of time and effort to these goals, we would not be making the progress we have made so far. At this mid-point in the year, I want to thank the following committee chairs and others who are working very hard on these three goals: (recognizing that this is only a partial list, as the space for this column is limited): Bunmi Awoniyi, Second Vice-President and Chair of the Long-Range Planning Committee; Sam Jackson, former President and special advisor to the Long-Range Planning Committee; Maralee MacDonald, Director-at-Large and Chair of the Membership Committee; Vicki Jacobs, Managing Attorney of the Voluntary Legal Services Program and tireless volunteer for membership-related issues; Dan McCrary, Treasurer of the Barristers and Chair of the Website Committee; and Heather Hoganson, Editor of this magazine and a valued source of information, energy and ideas to help us improve our website.
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